California Innovation.

(From The Bond Buyer)

Byline: Humberto Sanchez

A group including the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. is pushing a plan under which California would issue a first-of-its-kind state tax-credit bond to help finance $10.5 billion in rail and highway improvements in order to relieve rapidly rising congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

"Right now the state is looking at" the proposal, including state finance and transportation officials, Wally B. Baker, LAEDC's senior vice president for economic and public policy consulting, said in a recent interview. "They keep asking questions, so it sounds like they are interested." LAEDC is a private, nonprofit corporation that was established to promote the growth of business and jobs in the region.

The plan, entitled the "West Coast National Freight Gateway," calls on the state Legislature to approve legislation to establish a tax-credit bond program that would cover about a third of the $10.5 billion cost of the proposed rail, highway, and intermodal capacity improvements in Southern California. A third of the remaining cost would be covered by federal funds, while local government and private sector funds would cover the rest, according to the proposal's financing …