State lawmakers are scrambling to protect funding for climate programs after changes to California’s cap-and-invest program reduced the money available to them.
State Senator Dave Cortese says his proposal focuses on protecting transportation funding.
“It’s also, in a sense, the most vulnerable piece of it because transportation doesn’t really have any other source of funding going on in the Legislature,” said Cortese.
California’s cap-and-invest program generates billions of dollars through the sale of pollution credits. Money generated from those sales is meant to support transportation, housing and other climate programs.
Cortese says lawmakers and the next governor will need to work on a longer-term plan as revenue from the program declines.