Assembly Panel Backs 5-Cent Hike in Gas Tax

A proposed 5-cent increase in the state’s gasoline tax survived its first legislative test Tuesday, winning overwhelming approval in the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The committee endorsed the measure by Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) and Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) in an 11-1 vote, although several committee members indicated that some controversial provisions would have to be altered before they could vote for it on the Assembly floor. It now moves to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

The bill, which requires approval by a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses, calls for substantial increases in gasoline taxes and truck weight fees to finance a 10-year, $21.5-billion program to upgrade the state’s overburdened transportation system.

It would hike the state gasoline tax by 5 cents and truck weight fees by 30% initially and then continue to increase the fees and the tax every two years for the next decade according to a formula based on the rate of inflation. By the year 2000, transportation analysts estimate, the state’s 9-cents per gallon gas tax would rise to 24 cents per gallon.

“This $20 billion over the next 10 years is not going to solve all the problems (but) it . . . will go a long way to getting us off the dime and getting us into the next century in far better shape than sitting on our duffs and doing nothing,” Katz said.

The committee vote on the bill generally followed party lines, although one Republican, Assemblywoman Bev Hansen (R-Santa Rosa), cast her ballot with the majority. The single vote in opposition came from Assemblyman Charles Quackenbush (R-Saratoga). Several members who were present did not vote.

Katz will need support from the ranks of the Assembly’s 33 Republicans to win a two-thirds majority on the floor.

Assemblyman William P. Baker (R-Danville) said there is strong support among Republicans for transportation improvements. But he predicted that a major problem will be to get lawmakers to look beyond the concerns of their own districts.

“We’re going to have north and south splits and urban and rural splits. We’re going to have every split you can find. Everybody’s going to have to give up something before we can achieve that goal (to improve transportation),” he said afterward.

In the committee debate, Baker, took issue with a key provision in the bill requiring cities and counties to reduce urban congestion by 5% each year for five years to be eligible for additional money for local street and road maintenance.

He said the provision would penalize those areas with the severest traffic and growth problems and probably ensure that Los Angeles, for example, would be excluded “from getting into this pot.”

“I guess that’s the difference between you and me,” Katz said. “I’m willing to make Los Angeles take the heat for reducing congestion as part of getting their money.”

Katz said later that he would not compromise on the provision but that he did expect to accede to Republican demands for efficiency reforms within the state Department of Transportation. Many have complained that the department is overstaffed and that too much transportation money is being devoted to administration.

The measure also faces another roadblock that was not debated by the committee--Republican Gov. George Deukmejian’s opposition to any gas tax increase that does not require voter approval.

Although Katz’s measure would not require voter approval, the voters would have to change the Gann amendment, a spending limit approved in a 1979 statewide election and named after anti-tax crusader Paul Gann, before any of the new money could be spent. Democrats and Republicans agree that the limit as now written would prevent spending any transportation funds raised by new gas taxes or truck weight fee increases.

A “summit” called by the governor to discuss transportation issues is expected to consider the gas tax issue and the voter approval question at its final meeting later this month.

Brown, the Assembly Speaker, said many of the businessmen invited to the “summit” have lost hope of reaching a compromise with Deukmejian, but “I am not that pessimistic.”

“I am hopeful that we can, in fact, produce a gas tax increase.