"What this means is that almost every county in California that relies on this source of funding for projects that improve traffic and air quality will have to cut or delay projects indefinitely," stated CTC Chairwoman Lucy Dunn. "The commission adopted the most optimistic scenario we could make in good conscience, in the hope agreement will be reached on a number of reforms and new funding increases currently under consideration by the Legislature. But failing that, I fear we will be faced with even more Draconian cuts next year."

As transportation advocates struggled to absorb that news, along came the Board of Equalization, which is tasked with administering the maddeningly complex "gas tax swap" that was enacted in 2010 during a prolonged state budget crisis. The plan, which circumvented constitutional protections on raiding gas tax funds devoted to transportation, was intended to be "revenue neutral" but a steep drop in gas prices was never envisioned. As prices dropped, the tax revenue from lower prices resulted in dramatic reductions in funds devoted to transportation.

Meeting Feb. 23 in Culver City, the BOE voted 3-2 to lower the excise tax on a gallon of gasoline for Fiscal Year 2016-17 by 2.2 cents (to 27.8 cents).

The CalAPA-endorsed Fix Our Roads Coalition released the following statement shortly after the BOE vote:

"The BOE's action will reduce transportation funding by another  $328.2 million and will mean continued cuts to our chronically underfunded transportation infrastructure at both the state and local level. Declining gas tax revenues have left us with tens of billions of dollars of backlogged maintenance and little funding for new congestion relief projects.