Transportation Is a Must

Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed $1-billion highway bond issue attempted to apply a Band-Aid when the state’s transportation system needs emergency care. The governor should abandon any thoughts about seeking a recount of the June primary vote on Proposition 74. Then he should join with the leaders in the Legislature to launch a vigorous program to build a California transportation system that will have a real effect on the traffic congestion that threatens to strangle urban areas of the state and to harm the California economy.

The vehicle for such a program is SB 2600, sponsored by Chairman Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) of the state Senate Transportation Committee and Chairman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. It would raise the current 9-cent-per-gallon state gasoline tax by 6 cents to 15 cents a gallon and increase weight fees for large trucks by about 60%. A companion measure, SB 2712, would seek voter approval this November to exempt the increase from the state’s Gann spending limits by defining it as a user fee.

Part of the problem with Deukmejian’s bond issue was its departure from California tradition that highway construction is financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, primarily through gasoline taxes. Part of the problem was that the use of bonds would have cost taxpayers as much as $790 million in interest to finance the $1 billion raised. The major problem was the impression that $1 billion would have provided some measure of solution to California’s transportation problems. At best, the $1 billion would only have slowed the rate at which the state is falling behind the need.

The magnitude of the problem is staggering, with immediate state highway construction needs ranging from $15 billion to $19 billion, according to the Senate Office of Research. Other estimates run even higher. And a gasoline-tax increase is only one of many financing and policy options that should be pursued. Bonding might be acceptable for some transportation improvements, like rail facilities. Toll roads are another possibility.

But the gasoline tax is the obvious starting point. In fact, a larger increase than Kopp and Garamendi are proposing clearly is justified. The state gasoline tax has been raised only once since 1969--in 1983, when it went from 7 cents to the current 9 cents. The average of all states is 14.3 cents a gallon. The 9-cent tax now raises $1.1 billion a year, which the state shares with local governments. The tax should at least be doubled to 18 cents, raising an additional $1.1 billion. The Senate Office of Research proposed an increase to 20 cents.

No wonder California ranks dead last among the 50 states in per-capita spending on highway construction: State outlays have declined by 56% in constant dollars since 1969, when road work reached a peak of $3.2 billion. During the same period, population has increased by 8 million and the number of motor vehicles by 63%. Congestion is bad enough in Southern California, but is growing even faster in the San Francisco Bay Area and is moving inexorably into the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.

A doubling of the existing gasoline tax would be a reasonable and prudent investment in the state’s future. The governor fears that tax increases would harm California’s business climate. But without a first-rate transportation system the California business climate is likely to turn into a dreary winter, followed by more of the same.