SANDAG OKs bonds for TransNet

By: North County Times - | Friday, January 25, 2008 10:38 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- A transportation board Friday voted unanimously to authorize selling $600 million in bonds this spring to jump-start the 40-year, second phase of the region's TransNet highway and transit construction program.

TransNet is a half-cent sales tax measure that has been in place since April 1, 1988. It was due to expire this April, but county voters agreed in 2004 to keep the tax for another 40 years.

All the taxes collected since 1988 have been spent. As the second round gets under way, TransNet is expected to generate $250 million in its first year.

But rather than wait for a sufficient number of sales tax dollars to be collected before building, the board of the San Diego Association of Governments decided Friday to hit the ground running by issuing bonds that will provide an infusion of cash upfront. Muggs Stoll, the TransNet program manager, said the bonds will carry interest rates well below 4 percent.

Stoll said one-seventh of the anticipated $250 million in annual revenues will be needed to make payments on the bonds, with the rest being pumped directly into construction projects once it arrives.

The agency earlier signaled its intention to accelerate projects with bonds. The beneficiaries will be projects such as the long-delayed widening of Highway 76 between Oceanside and Interstate 15, which the agency has promised to complete by 2014.

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Carter: wrote on Jan 26, 2008 6:53 AM: Did you feel that? It wasn't an earthquake - it was the old SANDAG nudge on your wallet. them people really go after it don't they.

George wrote on Jan 26, 2008 10:08 AM:If they're going to take 6 years to finish the project, it should have no fewer than 6 lanes (3 in each direction) to keep up with projected growth.

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