For Immediate Release: November 20, 2007
Contact: Karen Clifton
Phone: (559) 445-5532

Fresno, CA - Assemblymember Juan Arambula (D-Fresno) today led a bipartisan group of San Joaquin Valley Legislators in urging the state to provide the Central Valley its fair share of funding out of $2 billion in transportation bond funding approved by voters in 2006.

Arambula, the lead author of the attached letter, cited the San Joaquin Valley’s distinctive role and the unique burdens placed on the region as goods are moved throughout the state.  Arambula also highlighted the growing crisis of air quality in the region that is directly affected by the heavily traveled goods movement system in California.

“The Central Valley is the principal north-south trade corridor in the western United States,” said Arambula.  “When more than 40% of heavy-duty diesel truck miles in the state are being driven right here in the Valley, we have to demand we receive the same amount of funding as the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego regions.”

According to Arambula, with the first round of funding coming up, the Councils of Government (COGs) in all eight San Joaquin Valley counties have joined with the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission to support five Valley projects that aid mobility and freight movement throughout the region.

“These five projects are critical and the San Joaquin Valley needs to be recognized during this first round of funding decisions,” said Arambula.  “But it’s even more important for the future that the Valley consistently be recognized as an independent equal among the state’s four principal goods movement corridors.”

In September, Dale Bonner, the Secretary of the California’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, urged the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to make decisions on the first round of projects from the Proposition 1B Trade Corridor Improvement Fund by the end of the year.  The CTC is expected to announce its first-round funding decisions soon.

*Attachments: Letter to California Transportation Commission (CTC)