Abstract
Because of the stagnation of federal money for new transportation infrastructure, local jurisdictions have increasingly found the need to fund capital projects themselves through transportation voter initiatives, known as local option taxes. Localized funding decisions make coordination across jurisdictions more difficult despite growing needs to solve regional problems, such as air quality, economic growth, and transport of the economically disadvantaged. In an effort to self-finance new projects while building an integrated regional system, some regions have taken the ambitious step of developing multijurisdictional self-help taxes and asking voters across multiple counties to support their proposals. However, few states authorize such taxes, and in some cases, advocates have had to lobby for legislative permission to hold a referendum. Although local obstacles are significant, legislative ones may stop such proposals before they can even begin. This study looks at seven cases that have occurred in four regions since 1990. Using interviews and archival evidence, this study examined how state-authorizing legislation and other factors shaped each process. The study finds that restrictive legislation can be problematic, although the need for new legislation makes the process cumbersome and difficult to repeat. Conversely, preauthorization using permissive language for particular factors—such as the tax rate, the timing and election cycle, the jurisdictions to be included, and the rules for selecting projects—is particularly important to ensuring that the process can adapt to local politics and changing circumstances. This approach can lift a significant obstacle to the use of multijurisdictional option tax processes as a way to fund regional transportation on a more regular basis.
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