Santa Cruz County Would Get $6M Under Infrastructure Bill

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — The House of Representatives approved a $715 billion infrastructure plan, and if the Senate passes it, it will mean $5.8 million for Santa Cruz County.

For the City of Santa Cruz, U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) requested $1.8 million for Santa Cruz METRO bus replacements and U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) requested $500,000 for ParaCuz replacements..

Eshoo has requested another $3.5 million for the Scotts Creek Coastal Resiliency Project.

If President Joe Biden signs the bill into law, it would be the nation’s largest infrastructure investment in about 75 years: a 50 percent increase over the last infrastructure budget, according to The New York Times.

California would be a big winner under the proposed law. The bill includes more than $900 million for projects throughout the Golden State. They include bridges, bike lanes and express lanes, railway expansions, electric vehicle charging stations, zero emission transit fleets, tunnels, transportation hubs, wastewater and drinking water projects and other infrastructure to prepare for rising sea levels.

The surface transportation and water spending bill prioritizes a Democratic wish list of projects for combating climate change. Democratic legislators argued that the funding is needed to contend with the effects of climate change and reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.

The unprecedented heat wave gripping the Pacific Northwest, killing dozens, added a sense of urgency among Democrats, who pushed the bill forward this week over Republican objections in the House.

“We have to rebuild in ways that we never even thought about before,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told The New York Times. “This is the moment. We have to be bold.”

View all California projects that would be funded under the current bill.