Deukmejian Calls On Business Leaders to Help Pass Gas Tax Hike

Gov. George Deukmejian made his first major pitch Friday for support of a gasoline tax increase, urging about 1,000 business leaders to help him “pull out all the stops” to win voter approval of the measure.

“It’s not going to be easy to go to the people and to say that we need them to join with us in paying this additional money for this far-reaching program,” Deukmejian told business leaders at the annual Sacramento Host Breakfast. “We’re going to need your help. We’re going to need your financial assistance to succeed in getting our message effectively across to the public.”

The governor, who at first was only lukewarm to a gasoline tax increase and then finally embraced it after negotiations with legislative leaders, is now leading efforts to get a campaign under way to win voter approval of an $18.5-billion transportation plan and modifications in the state’s spending limit.

The transportation plan, developed during long negotiating sessions with legislative leaders, calls for hikes in truck weight fees of about 54% and a 9-cents-a-gallon increase in the state’s gasoline tax over a five-year period. At Deukmejian’s insistence, the increases cannot go into effect unless voters approve the spending limit changes in June, 1990.

By providing funds for more highway construction, upgrading of rural road systems, expansion of rail and mass transit services and street maintenance, Deukmejian said, the transportation program would provide “a green light for California’s continued growth.”

“This is a plan that can relieve traffic gridlock on our highways and also unlock the true potential of California’s economy for the years to come,” Deukmejian said.

Following his speech to the business leaders, Deukmejian told reporters he plans to contribute some of his own campaign funds to the effort to pass the ballot measure if there is nothing in new campaign finance laws to prohibit it.

The governor, who is not seeking reelection, has $770,000 remaining in his campaign accounts.

He estimated that backers of the tax increase would need to raise at least $5 million for a statewide campaign.

The Associated General Contractors has already promised to collect $1 million from its industry for the campaign. “As the first line beneficiaries of $18.5 billion in transportation funding, we must set the example for others to follow,” the organization’s president, Carl Otto, told his members in a recent newsletter.

The governor said he will begin to set up a campaign organization and map strategy at an Oct. 5 meeting with supporters of the ballot measure.