Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock with Bim Box and Kathleen
Speaker 1: Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. Well, if you happen to live
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Seattle, you're gonna find
Speaker 1: something in addition to presidential choices in November, you're going
Speaker 1: to find ballot initiatives that we're going to design to
Speaker 1: increase infrastructure spending. Here to tell us more, Stephanie Beasley,
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill transportation reporter from Bloomberg b n A. Stephanie,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for being with us tell us
Speaker 1: about how ballot initiatives seem to be at least one
Speaker 1: of the big drivers for infrastructure spending. Sure, and thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. UM. So some lobby groups industry lobby
Speaker 1: groups of transportation industry have been following UM. What they
Speaker 1: say is an unusually high number ballot measures that would
Speaker 1: raise revenue for transportation projects throughout the country. UM. A
Speaker 1: lot of the by increasing taxes, majority sales taxes, but
Speaker 1: also fuel taxes and different states and counties. UM. And
Speaker 1: what they say is happening is that, you know, state
Speaker 1: and local governments are trying to sort of fill in
Speaker 1: where they feel like Congress UM hasn't done enough by
Speaker 1: providing more federal funding for infrastructure projects, and specifically, you know,
Speaker 1: the American Public Transportation Association has said that they are
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of sort of desire to increase revenue
Speaker 1: for public transit projects. Stephanie, as you report on this
Speaker 1: this this topic, does it strike you that, uh, one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that this these measures tend to pass
Speaker 1: is that if I am raising a small tax on
Speaker 1: myself and or my neighbors, um, and the money I
Speaker 1: know then is going to go to build something where
Speaker 1: I live. That it's a it's something that is a
Speaker 1: step that is is easier to fund sometimes maybe than
Speaker 1: getting these things passed in Congress, right, I think there
Speaker 1: is some reluctance in Congress to raise taxes. You know,
Speaker 1: there have been proposals for years to raise the federal
Speaker 1: gas tax, and there's sort of an idea that maybe
Speaker 1: this isn't something that is going to be attractive to
Speaker 1: voters generally, you know, the American public, and it could
Speaker 1: be something that would work against lawmakers at the at
Speaker 1: the federal level, but at the local level, which you're
Speaker 1: seeing here, as you said, is a lot of um
Speaker 1: sort of smaller tax increases. For example, in l A County,
Speaker 1: you have like a point five percent UH sales tax
Speaker 1: proposal that they're working with, which would raise about a
Speaker 1: hundred billion dollars over the next forty years. So this
Speaker 1: is something really long term they're looking at, and I
Speaker 1: think probably something that they feel would be palatable to
Speaker 1: their voters. Now, as Deephanie, I understand that at least
Speaker 1: in two states, well in California and in Washington, on
Speaker 1: the ballots for Los Angeles and Seattle, they've also they've
Speaker 1: they've had a lot of oppos to these UH to
Speaker 1: these ballot initiatives. Is this because they are uncomfortable or
Speaker 1: do not like the actual projects, or is it because
Speaker 1: they are opposed to the way they're going to be
Speaker 1: paid for? UM. I think whenever you talk about raising taxes, UM,
Speaker 1: that is not something that UM, you know, people who
Speaker 1: are fiscally conservative I tend to tend to agree with.
Speaker 1: So I think, as I talked about at the federal level,
Speaker 1: there's been that that issue, but also at the local level,
Speaker 1: I think you have the same thing. There are people
Speaker 1: who are just opposed to the idea of raising taxes
Speaker 1: And where do you see you know, maybe this is
Speaker 1: still a small amount. Um. It still might not be
Speaker 1: something that, um, you know, people who are physically conservative
Speaker 1: will get behind. Still, it still seems to me that
Speaker 1: if I know it's going to build a road in
Speaker 1: my state or my county, that my fiscal conservatism maybe
Speaker 1: is a little bit less in part because I know
Speaker 1: the money will presumably get spent effectively. Regarding raising gas taxes,
Speaker 1: I guess another question along these lines is is it
Speaker 1: somewhat easier perhaps to get people to vote for a
Speaker 1: small tax like ten cents per gallon when gas prices
Speaker 1: have fallen so much compared to where they were just
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. I think that's what the
Speaker 1: hope is you have in Oregon. I think it's clack
Speaker 1: clack of us. I'm going to try to say that, right,
Speaker 1: that's pretty good. I'm from Washington State. That was a
Speaker 1: pretty good pronunciation. Go for it, right. So they're considering
Speaker 1: a pretty small increase over the next seven years. But
Speaker 1: what is interesting is you don't see as many of
Speaker 1: the gas tax hi tax hike proposals here as you
Speaker 1: do the sales tax. Um. So what you're saying there
Speaker 1: was mention of Atlanta. They're also considering raising their sales
Speaker 1: tax by about point five per cent um to help
Speaker 1: expand their public transit system. UM. So, I think what
Speaker 1: you are seeing is a lot of small amounts UM.
Speaker 1: And I think what they're trying to do at the
Speaker 1: state and local levels is to really explain to the
Speaker 1: voters how those dollars will be applied. So you see
Speaker 1: very specific. You know, they'll say it's going to be
Speaker 1: applied to these public transit projects or maybe like ten
Speaker 1: highway projects that we're looking at, or we're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of improve the bike and pedestrian walkways, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So so, I think people are trying to
Speaker 1: be very specific into explaining to voters how they're going
Speaker 1: to spend the money. And UM, it seems like the
Speaker 1: groups are pretty optimistic. I think there's a more than
Speaker 1: seventy chance um of these ballot measures passing, at least
Speaker 1: according to UM groups like the American Public Transportation Association
Speaker 1: and Transportation for America. Okay, it's Definitie Beasley fascinating conversation
Speaker 1: ballot measures in California, Washington State and others to get
Speaker 1: the transportation system fixed up. I'm Kathleen Hayes along with
Speaker 1: Pim Fox and this is Bloomberg.