SANDAG's $160 billion long-range plan won't include mileage tax

The San Diego Association of Governments $160 billion long-range plan approved Friday experienced an eleventh-hour funding shift away from plans for a mileage tax.

The 30-year regional plan involves opening the new Otay Mesa East Port of Entry and Smart Border Management System, a central mobility hub that would connect to San Diego International Airport, relocating the train tracks on Del Mar Bluffs into a tunnel, building a new trolley line, and increasing route frequencies of public transit countywide.

“This is a monumental day for the San Diego region,” SANDAG CEO Hasan Ikhrata said, adding the 2021 regional plan creates transportation options that “address today’s challenges and build a foundation for tomorrow.”

Bloomberg News

The week before the SANDAG board adopted the 30-year regional plan, leading Democrats, including San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, SANDAG’s vice chair and Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, who chairs SANDAG, announced on Dec. 3 they would ask the board to consider funding alternatives that did not include a mileage tax.

“At this time, the local road usage charge as a replacement for the gas tax remains highly speculative, with very few details available about how it would work or be applied in a fair way,” Blakespear said in a Dec. 3 statement. “I am concerned that the road usage charge could saddle residents with large and unsustainable cost increases for their basic transportation needs before substantial improvements in public transit have made transit a viable choice for most trips.”

Though plans for a four-cents-per-mile road usage tax were scrapped, the long-range plan retains proposals for two half-cent regional sales tax increases in 2022 and 2028.

“The Regional Plan remains our key document in the quest to build more transit, maximize the road network for better efficiency and provide more bike and pedestrian paths that serve our community’s hunger for opportunities to travel outside our cars,” Blakespear said. “We can, and should, have a visionary, historic, green transportation plan without the road usage charge.”

SANDAG’s board has been working on the 30-year plan since 2019 and hosting public hearings to determine which road and transit plans to prioritize.

SANDAG released the draft 2021 Regional Plan in May and conducted a public review and comment period from May 28 to Aug. 6. The regional planning agency also prepared a draft environmental impact report, which was circulated for public review and comment from Aug. 27 through Oct. 11.

SANDAG had to approve the plan by December in order to qualify for state and federal funding, Ikhrata said.

"It's an extremely dense document. This is not just bullets on a page, it's a complex plan developed over years. This is not one big move, it's five big moves," Mayor Gloria said during Friday's board meeting. "I believe it is bold, ambitious and representative of the transportation system that we deserve as a San Diego region."

The plan will enable "us to deliver more projects like the mid-coast trolley, which was delivered on time and on budget," said Gloria, referring to a project that received a regional Deal of the Year from the Bond Buyer in 2019.

"We need to take this step to ensure we are in compliance with state and federal law to access the dollars we need to set this plan in motion," Gloria said.