Priorities for new Federal Funding from Infrastructure Bill: At the MPO

The Policy Committee zooms on Tuesday the 21st for the final time in 2021, a week earlier than usual because of the holidays. They also have an abbreviated agenda, and there is not a great deal to note.

The lifting right now is at the level of the technical committee, so the one substantive thing on the agenda is the approval of a letter to ODOT/OTC on recommendations for the extra "flexible" Federal funding coming in the Infrastructure bill.

In the Sunday paper

And, it is very pleasant to note, three of the four recommendations directly or indirectly center climate, one on "active transportation and safety," one on "transit centers," and one explicitly for "projects that reduce GHG emissions."

Three of four recommendations on climate

The fourth sounds benign, framed as it is with the "enhance" rhetoric, but that's about highway widening essentially, and is not so benign.

LA Times, Sunday front page

Still, the overall tone here represents progress, and that is great to see.

In the minutes on the November meeting, there is an interesting exchange, held at the same time they talked about the Public Participation Plan, that tells us something about ways the process is actually structured to be opaque to the public.

Are the STIP and MPO TIP redundant?

One of the Committee members asked about the apparent overlap and redundancy between the State's TIP and the MPO's TIP. That's a reasonable question! There's a lot of overlap and it seems like a lot of administrative effort and process goes in to writing two full plans that mostly echo each other. One is a product of State law, the other a product of Federal law. Couldn't we simplify?

It also testifies to the way that even with the oversight provided by Electeds on the MPO Policy Committee, so much power rests with staff and the career bureaucrats at ODOT. They are the ones who understand the process, and with each new crop of Electeds that sit on the committee they get to explain patiently why it's all so complicated or counter-intuitive. "Don't worry, we know what's best."

The Policy Committee zooms at noon on Tuesday the 21st, and the meeting packet and agenda can be downloaded here.

Meeting info