Senate OKs Plan to Use Oil Funds for Road Repairs

Abandoning hope for a major gas tax increase this session, the Senate on Wednesday approved a scaled-down plan that would set aside $125 million in offshore oil revenue to repair California’s deteriorating streets and highways.

The proposal, contained in legislation sent to the Assembly on a 34-1 vote, would break the state’s long-held policy of financing major transportation improvements with gasoline taxes and user fees.

Passage of the bill occurred as the lawmakers plowed through mountains of legislation in a stretch-drive effort for both the Senate and Assembly to approve by midnight Friday bills originating in their own chambers.

However, rapid progress in the Assembly slowed to a snail’s pace at midafternoon, when a computer that records votes cast by pressing a button on legislators’ desks failed.

Card Parlors

Consequently, the names of all 80 members had to be called by a clerk for their votes to be recorded, which proved a time-consuming process. The computer was not expected to be repaired until today at the earliest.

The Senate, meanwhile, reversed itself and passed 21 to 13 a controversial bill that would expand gambling in California by allowing local governments to approve the playing of stud poker at card parlors. The measure by Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles) had been rejected last week by one vote but was granted reconsideration.

Currently, only draw poker can be played at locally licensed card clubs. Greene said cities such as Huntington Park, sponsor of the bill, wanted stud poker approved so more players would participate and city revenues from such operations would increase.

The measure was opposed by Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, who said it would bring California “one step closer to full-scale gambling.” Gov. George Deukmejian last year vetoed a similar bill.

Sen. John Foran (D-San Francisco), author of the streets and highways measure, said he had no choice but to find an alternative way of raising money, because there was almost no support for a 5-cent-a-gallon gas tax he originally proposed. The tax would have raised as much as $600 million yearly but was removed from the bill.

“If I had the votes, be assured I would have pursued it,” Foran said of the tax increase plan. “I admit this bill is a short-term proposal until we can get our act together.”

Estimates Made

Several studies have chronicled a major deterioration in the state’s streets and roads. Experts believe it will take anywhere from $410 million to as much as $1.7 billion yearly to cover repairs.

The problems began after 1978, when voter-approved Proposition 13 slashed property taxes and cut revenue to cities and counties, prompting many to hold back on road maintenance and repairs. The situation was made worse by a federal freeze on transit subsidies that has been in effect since 1981 and a drop in fuel consumption that has triggered a reduction in gasoline tax revenues.

Under existing financing methods, 50% of the gas tax money goes to cities and counties for road projects. Senate Transportation Committee analysts say this brings in about $450 million yearly for repair and reconstruction of roads.

The additional $125 million from offshore oil leases would be used one time only. The money would be part of $375 million that the Reagan Administration is proposing to give California in a bitter dispute over how to share almost $6 billion in offshore oil revenues nationwide.

Road Work

If a final agreement is not forthcoming, the money for the road work would come from the state General Fund.

As it emerged from the Senate, the bill would require cities and counties to maintain their current spending on local roads and additionally match the new state funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis. That has particularly raised opposition from rural areas, where there is not enough money to even carry on existing road programs.

However, Foran said it is possible that the provision might be dropped from the bill as it goes through the Assembly.

Delinquent Youths

The Assembly, meantime, voted 56 to 13 to approve a controversial bill that would allow Juvenile Court judges to send delinquent youths to privately operated correctional camps in the outdoors as a condition of probation.

Similar camps are operated by the California Youth Authority. The bill, by Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) was sponsored by VisionQuest, a controversial organization that operates stringently disciplined camp programs in Arizona, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. It wants to set up camps in California.

Opponents charged that the VisionQuest correctional techniques constituted excessively harsh discipline. Supporters defended it as a successful program that stressed “confrontation and controlling programming.”

Denied License

Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego), an opponent, cited a San Diego County Grand Jury investigation of VisionQuest, and reported that one youth in another state had been “killed by neglect.” He said the organization was denied a license to start a camp in San Diego County.

However, Stirling said the grand jury investigation found VisionQuest not at fault in the youth’s death. He said California probation officers opposed the bill, because they “don’t like competition by free enterprise.”

In other actions:

- The Senate voted 24 to 8 to approve legislation making it a misdemeanor to intercept or eavesdrop on conversations taking place over car telephones or other radio telephone equipment. The measure, which was sent to the Assembly, also would outlaw the sale or distribution of devices designed to tap into those radio conversations. Ham radio operators oppose the bill.

- The Senate, on a 27-3 vote, approved a bill that would permanently close what some consider a loophole in Proposition 13’s property tax limits that allowed cities and counties to raise taxes to pay for voter-approved debts incurred before the ballot initiative passed in 1978.

The bill would allow cities and counties that had raised taxes for such expenses as pension plans, paramedic services and libraries to keep the higher taxes in force but would allow no new levies of that sort. The bill includes a provision that would permit Pasadena to impose a new property tax levy to pay for police and fire pensions if the levy receives 60% voter approval. The measure went to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments.