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Ms. Michelotti said that we have lost Federal dollars and they have tightened Federal dollars on transportation projects to the point they have dried up. She was happy that there is movement the other way, that at least they have unlocked the collected dollars that are there and supposedly it is going to start flowing back through the State government. If you had had more finds available, you would have been able to do some of the transportation improvements that are so important to this area. She is including Ilighway 84. which is a major one in this area. lftbat bad been totally improved and. at a time when we can get that, then we would have trodone a lot of the problems that we see out on the 1-580/i-680 interchange. iVh'. Fay said that his recollection of the amount that was impounded in the Federal Trust Fund was around $18 billion dollars and that is roughly the annual revenue into the Trust Fund. If you think about it as a year's worth of gas tax revenues at the Federal level, this is what was basically lost. l'his gives some sense of it and over a 20 year period that is maybe 5%, so it sounds like a lot of money, but it wasn't as huge as you might think it was. Mr. Pico thanked Mr. Fay thr helping to answer some of the questions and concerns on this matter. He said his one comment is that this is a local tax and wc have local control. Accountability is right here. Ms. Ayala said she understood that and said that if we are not all pushing for the taxes, both Federal and State, to be spent where the citizens are told they are going to be spent, then we wouldn't be in this problem today. She said that as far as she is concerned, if we had that State and Federal monies, the problems would not be as critical. Ms. Micheloiti noted that we are collecting Tri-Valley Transportation Fees on development that is occurring right here in the Tri-Valley Area. We are the only one to have an agency fiat cuts across seven jurisdictions and we in the Tri-Valley area are all doing this together and we are ahead of schedule. Mr. Jeff Hobson, 1915 Essex Street, Berkeley, representing the Bay Area Transportation Coalition, said the coalition is made up of over 70 environmental, public interest and social justice groups throughout the Bay Area. He was present to lend a voice in support for the ireauthorization of Measure FI and to endorse this expenditure plan. In particular, he noted the amount for ACE capitaI and operations. In endorsing this plan and getting those funds here, it is absolutely crucial to make sure that ACE operates in Alameda County. He was very impressed by Ms. Mortenson's numbers as to the amount of people that board from Alameda County and Pleasanton. It would certainly be unfbrmnate if that service were not able to continue. He also noted the increased funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects, which is very important. As a cormnuter cyclist and recreational cyclist he will personally appreciate the extension of the Iron Horse Trail to the BART station. tie knows that there will be many other projects in the City and throughout Alan~eda County that will be beneficial as well. His last point is about the Express Bus funding. They fought very hard lbr and secured a $10 million program in this expenditure plan for express busses. That was based on the Pleasanton city council 14 06/20/00 Minutes