Nearly three years after the California Transit Association first broached the idea of filing a lawsuit in response to state raids on transit-dedicated funding, a final resolution is nearly at hand. Last year’s ruling by the Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court’s subsequent rejection of the state’s appeal of that ruling produced a 100 percent victory in the case -- at least in terms of legal theory. Since then, work towards an implementation of decision has revealed that translating legal victory into actual transit dollars is at least as complex a political challenge as the legal work that went into the original lawsuit.

What is certain is that the effort has succeeded in outlawing any future diversions of Public Transportation Account funds. On the other hand, the best-case-scenario outcome is not to be: due to constitutional doctrine regarding separation of powers, the judicial branch cannot compel the legislative and administrative branches to reimburse the PTA the $1.18 billion owed to it, even though the courts have now clearly designated as illegal the 2007-08 transfers away from transit. Therefore, the final judgment, even though it indicates all steps necessary should be taken to reimburse the PTA, also acknowledges that the court cannot require repayment of past funds diverted; the final judgment, however, does provide transit advocates with a platform for ongoing political efforts to convince future legislatures and governors to abide by the law and begin to make appropriations restoring the full $1.18 billion to the PTA.

Additionally, by outlawing more diversions planned for 2009-10, the suit succeeded in freezing PTA funds, which have now been allocated to the State Transit Assistance (STA) program via the “gas tax swap” legislation signed into law by the Governor earlier this year. That $400 million allocation for Fiscal Year 2009-10 and 2010-11 represents the immediately-tangible benefit of the lawsuit (and the second highest single-year amount ever allocated to the STA program). Furthermore, as a practical matter, the suit spawned the legislative agreement to dedicate a beefed-up diesel sales tax revenue stream to the PTA on an ongoing basis, allowing establishment of a minimum $350 million annual STA program, with the allocation projected to grow to half a billion dollars a year by the end of this decade.

All that is left to settle is repayment of attorney’s fees incurred throughout the legal process. The initial judgment calls for the return of roughly half of the Association's legal costs (a refund of about $150,000). It is still possible that the state could appeal that award, though it seems unlikely such an appeal would be successful. From a quantifiable perspective, this long, often-frustrating, occasionally-contentious process has resulted in a $150,000 investment having netted $400 million in the short-term, and long-term prospects for the kind of stable, robust funding that the action set out to secure in the first place. Click here for an account of the history of the lawsuit, including links to all relevant legal documents.