Lawmakers Agree CA Roads Are Bad: But Now What?

California elected officials gathered in Oakland Wednesday to call for improvements to the state’s crumbling roads but provided little insight in to how they plan to fund them.

Gov. Jerry Brown was the headlining speaker at a packed news conference at the Port of Oakland, but when asked what measures he would support he said simply, “My approach is not to prematurely close the door.”

That approach would seem to leave open any number of proposals on the table, from raising gas taxes and imposing fees on electric vehicles to laying off 3,500 Caltrans employees and redirecting as much as $1 billion annually from the state’s general fund. Brown called for a special legislative session in June to address declining transportation funds and the states’ crumbling infrastructure.

Recent studies have shown California cities have some of the worst roads in the nation as revenue streams for transportation haven’t kept up with the state’s needs.

• Related: Bay Area, California Roads Some of Worst in Country: Report

State Assembly speaker Toni Atkins argued today that inflation and more fuel-efficient vehicles have drastically reduced revenue from the state’s gas tax.

“Funding that could bring the improvements we need are quickly diminishing,” Atkins said.

The state lawmakers touted a coalition of business groups, labor unions and local government officials calling for various methods of raising revenue and directing funding, including raising gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, redirecting cap-and-trade revenue intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for infrastructure improvements, and charging electric car drivers who don’t pay the state’s gas tax.

Republicans in the state legislature in June proposed a competing series of measures they argue would raise $6.7 billion including redirecting vehicle weight fees to transportation, investing existing state funds toward the measure, eliminating thousands of Caltrans employees and cutting long-term vacant positions from the state’s budget.

Brown said that such ideological divides would need to be overcome to come up with a workable plan for transportation, but declined to say what measures he supported or what kind of transportation bill he would sign.

During the debate, Brown said he would serve as more of a “looming omnipresence” remaining “above the fray” while a bipartisan solution was reached.

• Also see: Surprise, Surprise! Eastbound Bay Bridge Tops Most-Congested Bay Area Freeways

--Bay City News

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