Eric Thronson

Transportation:

• Eric worked with the City of Fontana to develop, prepare, and execute a strategic plan to support the City’s fiscal year 2022 RAISE grant application. This highly competitive federal grant opportunity administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation formed a key component of the City’s Complete Streets Upgrades. These upgrades include street, bike, sidewalk, and trail improvements, bringing numerous benefits and better quality of life for Fontana residents. The strategy entailed gathering support from key stakeholders in a way especially tailored to the current Administration’s priorities, thus maximizing the application’s chances of success. In addition to tailoring a message, TPA planned advocacy that leveraged the City’s strengths during the grant review process. The culmination of this process was the award of $15 million in Federal RAISE funds for the City’s transportation infrastructure improvements. In the FY22 RAISE cycle, Fontana was one of only eight jurisdictions in the State of California to receive a RAISE grant.
• Eric worked with California State Transit Agency staff to secure $23,600,000 in funding from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) for the Sacramento Regional Transit District. The proceeds from this grant will fund a fleet modernization project to purchase 8 new low-floor light rail vehicles to further expand low-floor light rail operations, resulting in faster train journeys, optimized boarding, increased safety, increased capacity, and expanded mobility options for the communities it serves.
• Eric worked to successfully secure a fiscal year 2022 federal appropriations earmark in the amount of $2.5 million for SunLine Transit Agency’s Fueling Station Expansion project, upgrading its 350-bar hydrogen public station to include 700-bar fueling capability for light and heavy-duty vehicles.
• In 2017, Eric was integral in the drafting and passage of the largest transportation funding legislation in California State history. The California State Legislature passed SB1 (Beall, 2017), also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, increasing transportation funding and instituting much-needed reforms. SB 1 provides the first significant, stable, and ongoing increase in state transportation funding in more than two decades.
• In 2016, Eric oversaw an effort bringing together legislative staff, Department of Transportation (Caltrans) staff, Transportation Agency staff, and Department of Finance staff, as well as regional transportation agency representatives, to review and restructure Caltrans’ methodology and legislative reporting of its Capital Outlay Support (COS) budget. Through this effort, Eric was able to build a consensus with everyone in the group around a particular solution that accomplished both aims of appropriate oversight and sufficient flexibility.
• In 2014, Eric led the effort with his Committee Chairman, Senator DeSaulnier, to author Senate Bill 1077, which established the California Road Charge Technical Advisory Committee. SB 1077 created the California Road Charge Pilot Program and tasked the Chair of the California Transportation Commission to convene a fifteen-member Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to study alternatives to the gas tax, gather public comment, and make recommendations for the design of a road charge pilot program.
• In 2014, Eric developed and staffed SB 486 (DeSaulnier), a bill that made several important changes to the state’s transportation planning and project programming process, including instituting a logical process for the state’s planning process to flow from the overarching California Transportation Plan to the Interregional Transportation Strategic Plan to the 5-year Interregional Transportation Improvement Plan. It also changed the way the state selected state highway maintenance and repair projects by requiring the development of an asset management plan to prioritize projects based on an approved set of metrics.
• As Deputy Director of Legislation and Finance at the California Transportation Commission, Eric was responsible for drafting the guidelines that implemented  AB 194 (Frazier, 2015), delegating to the California Transportation Commission the responsibility to approve the tolling of an unlimited number of transportation facilities in California.  Eric was also responsible for overseeing the first successful application for tolling authority under the new law.

Public Safety:

• Eric worked successfully with Senator Anna Caballero to secure $3 million in the fiscal year 2022-23 state budget on behalf of the City of Merced for its Regional Fire Training Center, including building infrastructure, the buildout of shared classroom spaces, decontamination facilities, urban search and rescue props, an aircraft rescue firefighting prop, emergency vehicle operations courses, fire training props, and the completion of a recycled shipping container fire tower.

Energy and Environment:

• In the fiscal year 2022 lithium tax trailer bill, Eric secured the inclusion of $5 million for the development of a programmatic environmental impact report and community benefit plan in Imperial County.