Gas Tax Gains as Governor Backs Off on Voter OK

The Senate narrowly approved a 10-cent-a-gallon hike in the state’s gasoline tax Monday amid indications that Gov. George Deukmejian has backed away from his insistence that any specific gas tax proposal be endorsed by the voters.

Senate approval came as Republican leaders withdrew their opposition to the measure with the understanding that it would be substantially modified as legislative leaders continue their negotiations with Deukmejian on a financial package encompassing schools, transportation and the state spending limit.

Minutes before the final vote, Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) told colleagues that the governor had already shown a willingness during private discussions to consider a plan that would allow a gas tax increase to become effective after voters approved merely a modification of the state spending limit.

The change would define gas taxes as user fees, which would exempt that revenue from the voter-approved spending limit.

Campbell told fellow senators it would be made clear to voters that by modifying the spending limit, they would be paving the way for a gas tax hike to go into effect.

Deukmejian in the past has insisted that voters approve any specific gas tax increase. He is supporting legislation by Campbell to raise the tax by 5 cents a gallon the first year and then 1 cent annually for the next four years.

‘Shown His Flexibility’

“I think the governor has shown his flexibility and his desire to get this issue moving,” Campbell said, referring to Deukmejian’s previous requirement for voter approval.

The governor’s office, however, would not go as far as Campbell. “We want to make sure that when the voters vote they know that gas taxes are going up,” said Michael Frost, the governor’s chief of staff. “There are several ways to do that. We haven’t gotten to the point of deciding which way we want.”

While the gas tax proposal by Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) passed the Senate 27 to 11--exactly the two-thirds majority it needed to move to the Assembly--a similar measure was blocked by Republicans in the Assembly.

Proposal Rejected

The proposal by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) was rejected 42 to 14 as near-solid Republican opposition made it fall 12 votes short of the 54 or two-thirds majority needed to pass the Assembly.

After a brief caucus behind closed doors, Republicans announced that they would oppose the measure unless Katz agreed to immediate modifications. Katz angrily refused, saying that he had been assured during the negotiations with the governor’s office and legislative leaders that Republicans would allow his bill to pass the Assembly with the understanding that it, like the Senate measure, would be altered to confirm with later agreements.

“I think Republicans have to enter the 21st Century,” he said later. “They have to come to the same conclusion that the governor has already come to which is that we need some solutions and that pouring concrete isn’t the only answer. . . . Either they don’t drive or they don’t understand the problem in California.”

Both Katz’s measure and the proposal by Kopp would raise nearly $20 billion in new revenue over the next decade for upgrading California’s transportation system.

Katz’s proposal would hike the gas tax by an initial 5 cents a gallon, with additional increases every two years for the next decade based on a formula that would be tied to inflation and population growth.

Privately, several Republicans in the Assembly said their opposition Monday stemmed from a distrust of Katz’s promise to modify his measure later in the legislative process.

‘Leverage’ Cited

“Why should we give up any of our leverage in the process before we get anything in return,” said one who declined to vote for the measure.

Katz, who immediately moved for reconsideration of the bill, said he will probably bring the legislation up again for a vote Thursday.

Both he and Kopp acknowledged that still to be hammered out in the high-level negotiations with the governor’s office is a plan for increasing truck weight fees, an agreement on the amount of a proposed gas tax increase and a plan for improving mass transit.

Californians now pay 9 cents a gallon in state taxes on gasoline and another 9 cents in federal taxes.

Frost said the governor will meet with legislative leaders today to discuss proposals for modifying the state spending limit, the action voters must take before any increased gas taxes can be used for transportation.