Incentivizing Value Capture for Greener Transportation Act

Key Points

• This bill creates a new grant program to help cities and states find creative ways to pay for public transportation. It focuses on a method called value capture, which involves using some of the money from rising property values near new train or bus stations to help pay for those transit projects.
• The main goal is to reduce traffic and pollution. The bill notes that transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gases in the country and that traffic congestion costs Americans nearly 87 billion dollars every year in lost time and fuel.
• To receive the grants, local governments must prove their plans will actually increase the number of people using transit and lower the number of miles people drive in cars. They also have to promise not to cut their own current transit spending just because they are getting federal help.
• The bill encourages building affordable housing and cheap office space for small businesses near transit hubs. It defines affordable housing as costing no more than 30 percent of a family's income and requires that construction workers on these projects are paid fair local wages.
• The government would provide experts to help cities learn how to use these new funding methods effectively. This includes looking at successful models from other countries to see how they fund their transit systems through local economic growth.

Impact Analysis

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