Each November, hundreds of localities around the county decide whether to invest in their roads, bridges, and transit systems. In some cases, it’s a traditional extension of an existing gas tax, and in others it’s a new fee on short-term vacation rentals.
No matter the funding mechanism, when voters weigh in on these measures, ARTBA’s Transportation Investment Advocacy Center (ARTBA-TIAC) is ready to report the results. As you can imagine, the morning after Election Day is a caffeine-fueled chaos in my office.
After 10 years of closely tracking these issues (and lots of coffee) I have learned that transportation investment consistently receives high support at the ballot box. Since 2013, the year TIAC was established, voters have approved 85 percent of all measures. We tracked all 2,871 of them, which combined, are worth an estimated $345 billion in new and renewed transportation revenue.
The last two years have been particularly positive for local transportation funding advocates. In 2021—the last time we had an off-election year— voters in 17 states approved a whopping 89 percent of 275 initiatives.
Last year, voters in 18 states approved 88 percent of 380 state and local ballot initiatives aimed at boosting investment. Fifty-eight percent of those measures were property taxes; 20 percent were sales or in-come tax-related; and the remaining 32 percent were mostly bond measures.
The 380 measures approved last year are expected to generate nearly $23 billion in one-time and recurring revenue for projects across the country. Of that funding, 85 percent will be used for highway, street and bridge improvements, while 12 percent will be used for multimodal projects and three percent toward rail and transit construction.
Off-cycle election years (years that don’t feature congressional or presidential candidates) typically have fewer measures on the ballot. However, based on our current view of the advocacy landscape, we anticipate a robust transportation ballot this year. Much of the activity will come from localities requesting renewals or extensions of existing taxes that are reaching their sunset date. I will have my coffee maker ready!
To follow the results of this year’s ballot measures and receive real-time updates on what is happening across the country, subscribe to the ARTBA-TIAC newsletter go transportationinvestment.org.
This article will appear in the November 2023 issue of Transportation Builder.