The Sierra Chapter kicked off the 2015-16 year with our 1st Annual Engineering Excellence Awards presentation at our September dinner meeting. We had a great group of projects to select from and were pleased to recognize the three projects described on the next page.
The evening’s keynote speaker was District 4, Assemblymember Bill Dodd. District 4 is a vast district including all or portions of Lake, Yolo, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, and Colusa Counties. Assemblymember Dodd is currently serving on the Business & Professions, Agriculture, Transportation, Rules, Water, Parks & Wildlife Committees, and he is the Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Wine. Hopefully our bottle of wine speaker gift met his standards!
Before getting into the main points of his presentation, Asm. Dodd made note that his former experience as a business owner and a Napa County Supervisor has provided him helpful insight regarding the impact of state policies on local governments, state agencies and commerce. His presentation then focused on the history of California’s transportation funding and challenges before us, as well as a summary of critical water infrastructure issues facing the state.
His points regarding transportation funding focused on the dwindling gas tax due to a combination of it being a fixed per gallon tax and our goals to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels leading to more efficient vehicles; hence less gasoline being sold. The Governor called a special session to address the transportation funding challenge to find ways to accomplish three key concerns:
1) Establish permanent, pay-as-you-go funding.
2) Establish performance management incentives.
3) Incorporate project development efficiencies to expedite project delivery or reduce project costs.
Asm. Dodd shared that the Governor’s proposed annual funding package for transportation is $3.6 billion, with an emphasis on repairing and maintaining existing transportation infrastructure. However, the current funding shortfall is estimated to be $100 billion. The Transportation Committee is slated to address the issue in the next session.
In regards to water infrastructure, the Assemblymember noted the success of Proposition 1 authorizing expenditures of $7.45 billion in general obligation bonds for state water needs. This years’ state budget appropriates around $700 million of the Prop. 1 money. Asm. Dodd recently penned a letter urging the Governor to call a special session on water to provide faster funding for specific water projects; however, this special session was not granted. The dinner group was encouraged to urge the Governor’s Office to expedite the distribution of these funds to local communities and projects.
Asm. Dodd acknowledged the great projects that were recognized earlier in the evening, sharing that it was very helpful for him to see the great work being done in the region to improve our infrastructure.
