LIGHT SUDDENLY TURNS GREEN FOR SLIGHTED TRANSIT PROJECTS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

After years of being cut and neglected, transit projects are again in the spotlight, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger restoring money for freeway improvements and Congress moving toward passage of a sweeping funding bill despite a threatened presidential veto.

The turn of events comes none too soon for transportation officials, who have borrowed money to keep capital projects afloat, while balancing skyrocketing costs of fuel and materials against declining revenues.

``You could look at it like a little bit of rain after a long drought,'' said Dan Beal, public policy manager for the Automobile Club of Southern California. ``There's quite a bit to be happy about.''

Mike Lawson, executive director of Transportation California, an advocacy group that recently organized a coalition of business and labor interests to lobby lawmakers in Sacramento, said further cuts would have been unbearable.

``I think we've gotten to a point where clearly the cupboard was bare,'' he said. ``The governor recognized the fact that highways are crumbling ... Transportation, I think, had borne a disproportionate share of the burden everybody had to face.''

Schwarzenegger last week announced that for the first time since 2002, when voters approved Proposition 42 - a measure earmarking gas-tax revenue for transportation - he would uphold that mandate.

He proposes allocating $1.3 billion in gas-tax money for transportation in the budget year that begins July 1.

The Proposition 42 revenue had been siphoned off to the general fund the past two years because of the state's budget crisis.

And on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate defiantly approved a highway bill that is $11 billion above the $284 billion plan approved by the House - and the amount that President George W. Bush has said he would support.

Transportation funding is popular among lawmakers because it means projects - and jobs - for their local districts. Experts say each $1 billion spent on transportation creates more than 25,000 jobs.

``With a bill such as highways, where there is a lot at stake, it's a bread-and-butter issue,'' said Shervin Boloorian, a legislative analyst for the California Institute, a nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington.

``It's one of those rare areas where you're seeing a lot of bipartisan spirit.''

The state's transportation advocates say the interest in funding couldn't come soon enough.

They point to dismal conditions of the state's roads, which leave Southern Californians wasting 93 hours a year in stalled traffic - worse than anywhere else in the nation, according to a recent study.

And it's no wonder gridlock is so bad: The population has skyrocketed more than 70 percent since the late 1960s, but road capacity has increased by less than 30 percent.

``You don't have to be an expert in transportation to know that our transportation systems are terribly stressed in California,'' said Megan Taylor, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities, which pushed to restore the Proposition 42 funds.

``You can't grow at those levels and not assume that you've got more cars on the road ... Something has to be done to make sure infrastructure investment keeps up ... that hasn't happened.''

Despite the newfound attention, experts caution that California is still some $10 billion a year behind what it needs to keep pace with growth.

``There's still a transportation funding shortfall ... $1.3 billion from Prop. 42 is wonderful; it'll help,'' Beal said. ``We're still short.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com