Marin transportation agency might tweak spending mix

A proposed redistribution of transportation sales taxes could provide around $35 million for major road projects on key Marin corridors.

“These are larger capital projects that don’t really have a funding source available for them currently,” said Derek McGill, planning director at the Transportation Authority of Marin.

The board governing the agency received a preview of the draft Measure AA expenditure proposal at its meeting on Dec. 8.

The draft plan, which also proposes a way to temporarily sustain a school crossing guard program, is expected to be released on Jan. 22 for a 45-day public comment period.

The proposals are a result of the agency’s required six-year review of the Measure AA sales tax expenditure plan.

In 2004, Marin voters approved Measure A, a 20-year, half-cent sales tax to support transit, roads, school routes and highway projects. The passage of Measure AA in 2018 extended the tax for 30 years, collecting about $35 million annually.

The six-year review follows the agency’s adoption of a 25-year countywide transportation plan, or CTP, which was approved in late 2024. One of the directives of that plan was to ensure that the Measure AA spending aligned with the plan’s mission to “advance safe, equitable and sustainable transportation.”

Agency staff have been meeting with the Marin Public Works Association, a technical advisory group, and the citizens oversight committee to review the spending plan.

McGill said a key theme expressed by public works directors in the county was the desire for what was previously called the “major road category” of Measure A.

That pocket of funding supported the overhaul of Miller Avenue in Mill Valley, Third Street in San Rafael and segments of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard through the Ross Valley and West Marin, among other projects, McGill said.

Under the new draft plan, revenue would be redirected from two funding categories to supply money for a new “reimagined roadway” fund, designed to support projects on corridors that connect communities.

Four percent of revenue would be pulled from the local roads fund. An “innovative technology” category would be eliminated, freeing another half-percent. That revenue would feed the new fund with 4.5% revenue through the life of the tax, which expires in 2049.

Examples of potential sites for projects that could benefit from the funding include Tamalpais Junction, where Shoreline Highway intersects a busy area in unincorporated Mill Valley, and the Hub — the intersection of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Center Boulevard and Red Hill Avenue — in San Anselmo, McGill said.

Alice Fredericks, a member of the Tiburon Town Council who sits on the Transportation Authority of Marin board, said she is concerned about shifting funding away from local roads. Twenty-two percent of tax revenue funds the category.

She said in towns like Tiburon, the majority of the roads are not “connector” roads. They come to dead ends in many cases.

“They’re narrow, they’re old and they often need extensive maintenance,” Fredericks said.

Marin County Supervisor Brian Colbert, also a board member, said the agency needs to position itself to leverage federal and state dollars “to make life better here for our residents in Marin.”

“I think one of the futures for TAM — if we’re not going to be sort of building highways — is really, how do we address our multijurisdictional corridors,” Colbert said. “And I think this program really sort of sets itself up well to address those.”

Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan, chair of the Transportation Authority of Marin board, acknowledged both points of view.

“I do think there is a role for TAM with regard to maybe coordination with all our cities and towns on their local streets and roads and paving programs,” Lucan said.

Such coordination, led by TAM, could create opportunities to package road projects and lower costs for municipalities, he said.

Additionally, officials propose to increase the share of revenue that supports the school crossing guard program. The proposal calls for redirecting a half-percent of revenue from a highway interchange fund, bringing the crossing guard program to a 7.5% revenue share.

The program is expected to cost about $2.4 million for the 2025-2026 school year for guards at 96 sites. Costs are expected to rise about 4% the following year. Without new funding, the number of guarded sites could drop to about 68.

The half-percent bump is expected to generate an additional $1.25 million for the program through 2034. The agency will still need to find funding sources outside of the Measure AA revenue to sustain the program, or else it will need to reduce program expenses.

McGill said the agency is preparing proposals for the sustainability of the program to present in the new year.

San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin, a board member, said she wants the public to realize that approving the expenditure plan does not mean the school crossing guard program would increase.

“And in fact, we’re going to be hard-pressed to even have 96,” Colin said. “There’s never enough dollars to do all the things that we want to do.”