Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Michael Pimentel

85. Michael Pimentel

Transportation was another sector seemingly doomed to be a budget casualty this year when Gov. Gavin Newsom froze $2.4 billion in state transportation funds in April. One problem: local transit agencies had already begun huge projects based on expectations of getting those funds as part of a $5.1 billion transportation funding deal last year. Oops. Enter Pimentel, who went on a full-throated charm tour through the Capitol and the governor’s office in an effort to get the money released. In early July it worked, with the governor unclenching his fist from $1.9 billion to be distributed to 22 transit agencies around the state. Not the whole enchilada, but a big enough bite to keep most of the jobs in progress and Pimentel’s wide and very diverse group of members, well, not happy but happy enough. 
It is the second year in a row that Newsom has tried to pause transportation funding, and the second in which Pimentel has come out on top.

Updated Aug. 7, 2024