And with more than 70% of Alameda County, Calif., voters agreeing to double the county's existing sales tax to 1%, extending it until 2045, receipts now will fund $7.8 billion in transportation and infrastructure improvements. These include a $400-million extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to Livermore, improvements to area freeway interchanges and expansion of bicycle and pedestrian paths.

The added tax collection will start in April, but many projects have yet to begin environmental review. In San Francisco, 71% of voters supported a $500-million bond measure to fund transit-system upgrades and various street improvements.

More than $727 million in public works, education, transportation and related projects are anticipated in Prince George’s County, Md., outside of Washington, DC, with five construction-related bond measures oked.

Gaming enthusiasts in Massachusetts defeated a measure, backed by $14 million from casino interests, to repeal the state's expanded gambling initiative, passed in 2011. That vote led the state on Nov. 6 to approve a license to MGM Corp. for an estimated $800-million mixed-use casino-resort, set to break ground next spring in Springfield. Casinos say they will invest more than $2.6 billion in related state projects, that they say will generate as many as 6,500 construction jobs. The state also awarded a casino license after the vote to Wynn Resorts.

As expected, New Jersey voters approved an initiative to fund more open-space preservation through a larger corporate tax revenue allocation.

But state Dept. of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese confirms the measure is likely to divert or reduce revenue that has been used for waste cleanup, water quality and park projects. "It is well intentioned but requires costly trade-offs," he says.

For now, funding for the work is in place, and the timing for change is unclear. Also, according to media reports, the state legislator who authored the open-space initiative has sponsored a new bill to divert funding from the tax revenue specifically for the environmental programs.