SANDAG’s $165 billion regional transportation plan calls for more carpool lanes on the highway, a transit stop at the airport and a faster train from San Diego to Los Angeles.

The money was supposed to come from three sales-tax hikes that voters would have to approve beginning in 2022, but the first of those increases failed to make this November’s ballot because the citizens' initiative didn’t gather enough signatures.

“It didn’t happen in 2022, but it’s going to happen in 2024,” Hasan Ikhrata, SANDAG’s executive director, told NBC 7 on Monday. "Probably either us or whatever group is going to go to the voters in 2024 for a sales tax."

This past September, SANDAG board members voted against pursuing a controversial mileage tax that would have charged San Diego drivers 4 cents per mile after the year 2030. At the time, board members acknowledged that the mileage tax might come up again as a funding option, but after the 2022 election cycle, there are more conservatives on the 21-member SANDAG board than there were before. Conservatives are projected to flip the mayoral seats in Chula Vista and Escondido and retain power in Carlsbad, Vista and Oceanside. Many of these candidates have campaigned against the mileage tax, so it seems unlikely that the new SANDAG board that convenes in 2023 will approve a mileage tax in the near future.

“I guarantee you, between now and 2030, the state of California has to impose such a fee because we are all going to be driving electric cars, and if we don’t have such a fee, we would be paying zero taxes, so anyone who thinks that this discussion is going to end because there is political BS going around, it’s not,” Ikhrata said.

Right now, the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento has to approve SANDAG’s vote to remove the road usage tax from its regional transportation plan. Ultimately, Ikhrata said, most of the money for the plan will come from state and federal funds, but it won’t be successful without sales tax increases too.