Independent review of OC Go funding ensures funds are used as promised to voters
ORANGE – The Orange County Transportation Authority’s Taxpayer Oversight Committee will hold its 29th annual public hearing on Tuesday, June 9 to ensure that Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements, also known as OC Go, is being delivered as promised to Orange County voters.
This year’s public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. June 9 and will be held via teleconference due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
Members of the public can listen to live audio of the public hearing by visiting www.octa.net/PublicHearing. The public also is invited to submit written comments at that same website. Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday, June 5.
The independent, 11-member oversight committee was formed to monitor OCTA’s use of Measure M funding, approve all changes to the OC Go plan and hold annual public hearings on the expenditure of funds generated by OC Go, which was first approved by voters in 1990 and renewed in 2006.
The original Measure M half-cent sales tax made possible more than $4 billion worth of transportation improvements. Since 1990, hundreds of local projects have been completed that help residents travel throughout the county every day. This includes improvements to freeways, widened streets, synchronized signals and improved intersections. The original Measure M also made possible Metrolink commuter-rail service in Orange County, which OC Go continues to fund.
OC Go will continue funding balanced and sustainable transportation improvements through 2041. The voter-approved funding plan allocates 43 percent to freeways, 32 percent to streets and roads, 25 percent to transit and includes two environmental programs.
The goals of OC Go include relieving congestion, maintaining infrastructure, supporting rail and community transit options, synchronizing signals across jurisdictions, reducing transit costs for seniors and people with disabilities, reducing transportation-related pollution in Orange County, and preserving land to offset the environmental impacts related to improving the transportation system.
For more information about OC Go or the Taxpayer Oversight Committee, visit www.octa.net/TOC.
