If Sacramento leaders fight neighbors over millions in state dollars, we all lose | Opinion
We are in one of the most consequential moments in Sacramento regionalism, one where vital cooperation on transportation planning could be undermined by fights over money.
Sacramento Regional Transit has been privately floating a nuclear option in regional politics, stripping a six-county transportation agency of its authority to distribute tens of millions of state transportation dollars annually to Sacramento County.
RT, which runs county buses and light rail, has been not-so-subtly suggesting that the alternative is for the state to directly distribute these transportation dollars to the county instead of managing the money through the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
Behind this bureaucratic shuffle is an apparent belief by RT leadership that it and the county have wrongfully lost more than $180 million over the last 10 years to other counties and administrative overhead at SACOG.
RT’s allegation about an ongoing misdirection of public funds is detailed in at least one PowerPoint presentation that the transit agency has refused to provide to The Bee. Remember, this is a presentation from a public agency about the distribution of public funds for public purposes. And RT leadership does not think you, the public, should know what it has been up to.
RT’s stealth messaging appears to have gained enough legs to help generate a related public discussion scheduled this Thursday before the Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA), the county agency that has long distributed local sales tax dollars for voter-approved transportation and transit projects.
This is a moment for Sacramento County to remember its very limited ability to influence its own transportation future on the statewide stage, and why regional consensus is far more powerful than conflict.
To decapitate SACOG of its role of receiving state transportation funds on behalf of Sacramento County, somebody would undoubtedly have to pass state legislation in order to do so. But in the zero-sum game of transportation funding, RT’s clear desire to capture more money would set off a regional food fight and rightfully divide local legislators.
This money dispute RT has instigated is so sensitive that General Manager Henry Li and Board Chairman Rick Jennings, the two normally responsible for dubious strategies like this, have made themselves unavailable for interviews.
“All I can tell you is that it seems that this is a very fluid situation,” said Rancho Cordova Councilwoman Linda Budge, an RT board member.
According to a source familiar with RT’s private position, the transit agency has been contending that Sacramento County is losing more than $18.3 million annually for local needs because it is going to other counties and to SACOG administrative costs and projects. RT also points out that Yolo County, which represents 11% of the population, has been receiving 14% of certain funding.
Frankly, RT’s math is sophomoric.
SACOG in the last fiscal year received about $176 million from various state and federal sources and used $22.5 million of it to run the agency. That’s a lean budget for a six-county government agency, with little to be gained over a fight over SACOG’s own costs.
Yolo County, meanwhile, has a disproportionate burden to transport residents who live elsewhere across its borders. That it may receive slightly more SACOG funds, per-person, can make perfect local and regional sense.
Besides, picking on Yolo County is a huge political blunder.
The California state senator of the third district is Christopher Cabaldon, a former West Sacramento mayor and a renowned SACOG representative during his tenure. He would play a disproportionately large role in any legislative play by Sacramento County to directly control its state transportation dollars. Cabaldon also declined to comment.
Local leaders tend to love local control, but there is no getting around SACOG and its indispensable regional role. The transit and road projects identified in its transportation plans to reduce emissions region-wide are the ones that qualify for state funds. Period. Sacramento County, if it directly received the state funds, would have to play by the same rules.
SACOG Executive Director James Corless, who has valiantly tried to be a calm port in the region’s political storms, on Monday said he is confident from his conversations with RT that they can work together to resolve any differences.
“We’ve worked with our partners including SacRT well and are on the same page moving forward,” Corless said Monday.
Sacramento County has every right to consider whether and how to improve its transportation planning expertise. Whether STA should expand into that role is for its board, with some straight-talking information from staff, to ultimately decide.
RT, however, has gone wildly astray by privately suggesting that it is some grievous financial victim of regionalism. With massive state subsidies from the COVID era set to expire in the coming years, RT faces some big challenges.
RT needs all the friends it can get.
This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.