The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority voted Wednesday to try to buy an office building in San Francisco using bridge toll dollars despite a pending audit.
The MTC, the San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation and financing agency, voted Wednesday to buy the San Francisco building and move out of its Oakland headquarters despite some criticism from local politicians, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Most of the up-front funding would come from BATA, which collects tolls on Bay Area bridges and issues bonds backed by those tolls.
Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, requested an audit of the MTC after its decision in July to pursue the purchase in the wake of recent toll hikes. The audit was approved by a unanimous vote by the California Join Legislative Audit Committee in August.
DeSaulnier, as chairman of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, will also hold a series of hearings this fall to examine regional governance in the Bay Area.
