Both houses of the Legislature today passed the "gas tax swap" bills, which, among other provisions, will provide $400 million in immediate appropriations from the Public Transportation Account (PTA) balance to the State Transit Assistance Program (STA).

The Association's Executive Committee recently voted to oppose the major element of the "gas tax swap" proposal, which is to eliminate the sales tax on gasoline and replace the revenue through increasing the excise tax on gas. The sales tax on gasoline has provided core revenues to the PTA for decades.

While the Association has not adopted an official position on the entirety of the transportation budget package voted on today, we appreciate the efforts by the Legislature in working with us to maintain transit funding through today's bills (ABx8 6 and ABx8 9).

To read the bill language for ABx8 6, click here. For ABx8 9, click here. For condensed analysis of the contents, click here for ABx8 6, or click here for ABx8 9.