State Leaders Urge Gas Tax Hike to Fund Highway Work

Gov. George Deukmejian and state business, labor and legislative leaders agreed Wednesday that an additional $20 billion will have to be pumped into the state’s transportation system over the next decade to reduce congestion and keep pace with population growth.

Emerging from a three-hour “summit” meeting, several participants said everyone except Deukmejian appeared to agree that a substantial gas tax increase would be needed to raise the kind of revenue it will take to update California’s overcrowded highways, provide additional mass-transit facilities and initiate new techniques for managing congestion.

“In fact, not a single soul opposed a gas tax increase except the governor,” said Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). “Everyone but the governor was in sync that a gas tax increase has to be the primary source.”

Gas Tax Hike Foreseen

Afterward, Deukmejian reiterated his view that a gas tax increase is not the “best way” to raise the revenue. But, as he has in the past, the governor also said that he would “not stand in the way” of an increase as long as it was subject to voter approval--a requirement legislative leaders and many of those attending the meeting oppose.

“I think we ought to have nerve enough to do it ourselves,” Brown said, predicting that there will be a gas tax hike “one way or the other.”

Despite the disagreements, the governor and legislative leaders said they had reached enough of a consensus on some issues that it should be feasible to fashion a plan to attack the state’s long-range transportation needs. The governor said the group would meet again next month.

“Everyone seems to be in general accord that working together in good faith . . . we can reach some kind of agreement upon an approach to resolve the issue,” Deukmejian told reporters afterward.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) added: “I am very optimistic we are going to have a real product for the people of the state of California in the not-too-distant future.”

Deukmejian had invited to the meeting 27 business, labor and political leaders involved in transportation in an effort to develop a comprehensive plan for easing the mammoth traffic problems that plague California’s urban areas.

Advisers said the decision to convene the high-level meeting was a rare move for the governor, who seldom seeks such widespread outside advice when he is working on a proposal for dealing with state problems. To have called such a meeting, they said, was an indication of the priority Deukmejian has attached to the need for solving the state’s transportation problems.

The governor recently announced that he will retire from public office after his present term expires in 1990, and he has indicated eagerness to resolve the state’s transportation problems before he steps down.

Jack Maltester, president of Californians for Better Transportation, said recommendations at the meeting for gas tax increases ranged from 3 cents a gallon to 10 cents.

He said several participants at the meeting suggested marrying a gas tax increase to a general-obligation bond issue. He said the bonds--favored by Deukmejian--would be used to solve an immediate funding crisis in the state’s transportation system while money raised from a gas tax increase would go to long-range improvements.

While many of the issues before the group were left unresolved, Maltester said the agreement on the $20-billion figure was a signal that state government and private business and labor leaders were ready to seek long-term solutions to the transportation problems.

“Nobody was talking about a quick fix,” he said.

Most of those invited to the meeting had already taken strong public stands in favor of a substantial increase in the state’s 9-cent gasoline tax.

In the Senate, Roberti and Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) have authored legislation that would raise the tax by 10 cents. In the Assembly, Brown and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) have unveiled a proposal that would hike the tax by 5 cents initially and then increase it every two years for the next decade. Those increases would be tied to inflation.

The sticking point in each proposal as far as the governor is concerned is that neither requires voter approval.