One of the risks to any potential solution to the Caltrain crisis has been the California state budget. All of the transit agencies that contribute funds to Caltrain depend for part of their budget on over $300 million per year in state transit funds. If dedicated state transit funding was raided to balance the budget, that would cause deep problems in regional budgets and make any Caltrain solution unlikely.

The story is complicated, but the outcome is pretty straightforward, and the risk to transit funding has been averted – if California passes a budget, it will have the expected transit funding.

Here’s the longer version. Last year, state legislators and voters weighed in strongly in favor of keeping local transit funds. After Gov. Schwartzenagger raided transit funds for the general budget, the state legislature passed a complicated Gas Tax Swap measure whose goal was to protect transit funding from future raids. Then, in the November election, voters passed Prop 22, a measure which protects local government funding from being raided for other budget purposes. The intent was clear, protect local transit. But voters also passed Prop 26, which requires a 2/3 majority vote for changes in taxes and fees – even retroactively.

So the legislature needed to *re-approve* the gas tax swap measure, in order to keep transit funding safe in the budget. Last Wednesday, the Senate budget committee considered and re-authorized the gas tax swap. Friends of Caltrain sent letters to Senator Simitian, Senator Leno, and the Committee urging them to protect transit funding before the key vote. Then this week, the Assembly Budget Committee passed the same measure. This means that the transit funding is safe from conference negotiations. So, as long as California passes a budget – which is a challenge – the budget will have transit funding in it.

This reduces one big risk to Caltrain solutions. Now it’s back in the hands of regional decision-makers and local voters continuing to speak out.