Panel Blocks Republican Bid for Vote on Gas Tax

In a setback for Gov. George Deukmejian, the Assembly Transportation Committee on Monday temporarily blocked a Republican plan for a November special election on a gasoline tax increase of 9 cents per gallon.

The committee, which had already endorsed a gas tax increase proposal by Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) that would not require voter approval, rejected the measure by a 5-3 vote but agreed to consider it again at a later date.

The proposed constitutional amendment by Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) needed nine of the committee’s 16 votes for approval.

Ferguson’s approach was similar to a 10-year, $20-billion transportation improvement plan that Deukmejian outlined at the last of his three transportation summit meetings in April. At the time, Deukmejian said he was not formally supporting the plan but merely presenting what he considered to be a consensus reached by the business, labor and political leaders participating in the summit.

Deukmejian did, however, insist that any proposed gas tax increase be submitted for voter approval in November.

After the committee vote Monday, Ferguson said the committee’s action showed the extent to which Republicans and Democrats are still deadlocked on the transportation issue.

“We’re keeping my measure on life-support systems while we’re waiting to find out how this will come out politically,” he said.

Ferguson said Republicans are demanding concessions from Katz, whose bill is pending on the Assembly floor, before they will give him the two-thirds vote needed for final passage. So far, he said, neither side has relented. Republicans are sticking to their demands that any proposed gas tax be subject to voter approval while the Democrats maintain that it is the Legislature’s sole responsibility to decide the issue.

Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City) told the committee the two sides are also split over modification of the state spending limit. She said Democrats oppose a Republican plan to lift the limit only for transportation spending.

“I do not support a change in the (spending limit) that only takes care of roads and makes matters worse for the mental health people and others,” she said.

The spending limit, known as the Gann amendment after its author, anti-tax crusader Paul Gann, ties government spending to an inflation index and population growth. Without a modification in the limit, the state would be prevented from spending any additional revenue from transportation.

Ferguson estimated that his gas tax proposal would raise an additional $16.5 billion for transportation over the next decade.

Katz’s proposal, which calls for an initial 5-cents-per-gallon increase to be followed by automatic increases every two years for the next decade, would raise about $21.5 billion. The automatic increases would be based on an inflation formula.

Californians currently pay a state gasoline tax of 9 cents a gallon.