Going Into Debt to Build Roads

The Deukmejian Administration has consistently opposed state support for mass transit and Amtrak. It eliminated the overnight train between Northern and Southern California, has blocked commuter rail service in Southern California, and seeks to eliminate state support for the commuter service in the San Francisco Bay area.

According to Gov. George Deukmejian, transit modes should pay for themselves, general tax funds should not subsidize them, and user fees from one mode should not support others. Now he proposes to subsidize highway construction with a $2.3-billion bond issue financed from general tax revenue.

Contrary to appearances, the governor is being consistent. The proposal illustrates what some have called the “Deukmejian dividend,” the return to his contributors on their $13 million investment in his reelection campaign.

To his agricultural contributors, he has given control of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board; to those in the insurance industry, judicial appointment of many friends of the industry; to businesses, abolition of California OSHA; to the utilities, sympathetic appointments to the Public Utilities Commission; and to toxic waste producers, attempted relief from the toxic waste initiative.

In his bond proposal, the governor is merely proposing to give to the trucking and road construction industries and some real estate interests their fair share. No one can accuse him of not treating his contributors equally.

BOB CLARK JR.

Los Angeles