With federal infrastructure dollars will come onerous mandates for public transit.
Local governments and transit agencies are going to have to come up with matching funds, and to boost revenues, they’ll need to find ways to bring riders back. That will require some bold decisions.
Authors
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a sprawling $1.2 trillion spending bill that includes nearly $40 billion in additional money for local public transit, is about to force transit agencies and local governments to find new revenues to match the beefed-up federal grant dollars. Difficult choices will need to be made now — think new tax increment financing districts, congestion pricing or repurposing of existing public funds — or IIJA grant dollars will be left on the table.
Mandates on how IIJA dollars can be spent only increase pressure placed on local governments and transit agencies. Unlike the COVID-19 relief bills, which included funding to support operational expenses, much of the IIJA’s public transit funds must be spent on capital projects.
...
The rest of this article can be found at Governing's website, Governing.com.