ABAG and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission this month finalized their joint state and federal priorities for the 2024 legislative session. ABAG and MTC staff advocate for the Bay Area’s priorities in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., and the 2024 MTC/ABAG Joint Advocacy Program will guide their work for the year.
The number one priority for this year will be to pursue legislation in Sacramento enabling Bay Area voters to consider an MTC-led regional transportation revenue measure as early as November 2026. As MTC seeks future regional funding to support transit recovery, there will be a focus on transit agencies’ accountability for improving the transit rider experience, including inter-agency coordination, passenger safety and affordability. Accountability and reform provisions will be included in the MTC-sponsored authorizing bill (SB 925), introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, to ensure that along with new money, Bay Area transit agencies are meeting the needs of customers. The revenue measure also would support safe streets, connectivity and help make the Bay Area more resilient in the face of a changing climate.
Other high-level themes for state and federal advocacy in 2024 include:
- Maintaining state transit funding commitments that were made in the fiscal 2023-24 state budget deal;
- Continuing to coordinate with Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry and other coalition partners on Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 "clean-up" legislation to ensure that a potential housing bond measure on the November 2024 ballot has the best possible chance of passage;
- Discussing updates to the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process; and
- Securing for the Bay Area its fair share of federal transportation funding, which increased to historic levels under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
Additional focus areas for state advocacy include climate and resilience issues, and the Brown Act, which requires the public to be informed of and able to participate in meetings of ABAG and other local and regional government bodies. Proposed federal advocacy priorities track closely with those from the 2023 advocacy program, though ABAG and MTC will begin staking out priorities for the next national surface transportation reauthorization, slated for an update in 2026.
Learn more about MTC/ABAG’s state and federal advocacy work.