As everyone who reads the news or watches TV knows, California’s budget process has been a disaster. This is not too surprising considering the state of the economy, the fact that it takes a two-thirds majority to pass the budget, and the inability of the Democrats and Republicans to work together on anything. But what was surprising was that a recent transportation lawsuit won by Sacramento neighborhood and environmental groups was unexpectedly caught up in the middle of it.

In June of 2007, Neighbors Advocating Sustainable Transportation (a coalition of Sacramento neighborhood and community groups, and the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS)) filed a lawsuit over Caltrans’ inadequate Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for widening Highway 50.

Caltrans plans to add an additional lane to Highway 50 in both directions between Sunrise and Watt Avenue; the lanes would become high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes) also known as carpool lanes. In July 2008, Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley agreed that Caltrans had not complied with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and ordered Caltrans to complete a new EIR.

One of his requirements was that the new EIR include an alternative that could reduce traffic congestion on the Highway 50 Corridor without adding lanes to Highway 50. In other words, a mass transit alternative. In addition, the judge ordered Caltrans to analyze the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from more cars using the widened freeway.

NAST and ECOS were starting to look into such a transit alternative when Governor Schwarzenegger announced that he planned to exempt Highway 50 and ten other highway projects from CEQA. His reason: without CEQA, all 11 projects could begin construction immediately and thus qualify for federal stimulus money. The unsavory catch for legislators and the public: the Governor was asking the legislature to use its powers to overrule the court's decision on the Highway 50 CEQA lawsuit, a very worrisome precedent.

Budget negotiations dragged on. There was a lot of lobbying about CEQA: Democrats wanted no changes to CEQA; Republicans wanted to get rid of it completely, not just exempt 11 projects. State and national environmental organizations weighed in. As the state’s economy continued to worsen, Democrats were under increasing pressure to compromise in order to get a budget passed.

Finally NAST and ECOS were asked if they were willing to negotiate with Caltrans for projects that Caltrans could do to address the problems found by the judge and mitigate the negative impacts of widening the freeway.

After much soul searching, NAST and ECOS agreed. They did so for two reasons: First, it was quite possible that the legislature would simply override their lawsuit and they would be left with nothing. Second, winning an EIR lawsuit doesn’t stop a project, it just means that a new EIR must be done. Hopefully, the new EIR will result in an improved project that fully addresses negative impacts. But, no matter how compelling the new EIR’s findings, the agency in charge of the project, in this case Caltrans, can still ignore them, claim “overriding considerations," and build the project without addressing the public’s concerns.

The NAST/ECOS negotiations were attended by representatives from Regional Transit (RT), Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), the legislature, and state environmental organizations, all of whom had an interest in the outcome for their own reasons. In the end, NAST/ECOS agreed to ask Judge Frawley to vacate his ruling (which he subsequently did) in exchange for major project mitigations that CalTrans would not otherwise have provided: 1) Three years ($3.6 million) of RT’s operating costs for double tracking light rail from downtown to Folsom (this money will leverage construction funds and mean that the double tracking can occur sooner than would have otherwise been possible); 2) $3.9 million in signal improvements that will increase frequency of service from Hazel to downtown and allow for additional peak period express trains from Folsom to downtown and 3) find $820,000 for construction of a bicycle pedestrian crossing over Highway 50 near Mather Field Road to provide better access to the Mather Field light rail station.

Budget negotiations are now over. California has a new state budget. Unfortunately, it is one that leaves much to be desired in terms of neighborhoods, the environment and transportation.

RT’s Folsom line is better off because of NAST/ECOS’ lawsuit and negotiations. But 11 major highway projects, all with the potential to increase green house gas emissions and increase the number of cars on our roadways, will soon be under construction.

The new state budget eliminated all state money for public mass transit. The Highway 50 HOV project will cost $145 million, money that could have been used to give Sacramentans real alternatives to their cars. Hundreds of millions will be spent on the ten other, now CEQA exempt, highway projects.

The Highway 50 project goes as far Watt Avenue. SACOG and Caltrans still want to bring the widening downtown and also add HOV lanes to I-5 and I-80. And Sacramentans who want to use transit are still left with very few alternatives. NAST and ECOS aren’t going away and neither is the fact that Judge Frawley’s ruling was the first time that a judge said that a freeway project EIR needs to look at greenhouse gases and transit alternatives for relieving highway congestion.

The bottom line for NAST is that no additional money should be spent on expanding streets and highways until our region has built a transit, bicycle and pedestrian transportation system that provides people with real alternatives to cars. Such a system would reduce traffic congestion on our existing highway system so that, when you need to use a car, you still can. For more information about NAST and to get involved, go to www.nastsacramento.blogspot.org.