Is This Really Enough?

The $800 million in emergency taxes that the state Legislature is to consider in a special session beginning today would run state government for only six days, costing each Californian about 7 cents a day. That hardly seems equal to the task of repairing damage from the Oct. 17 earthquake in Northern California, let alone safeguarding California highways and vulnerable state buildings against the even more devastating quakes that could strike virtually anywhere in California tomorrow.

The quarter-cent sales tax increase is shockingly low even compared with the $3.45 billion that the federal government approved with remarkable speed last week. The special funds would offset barely half the damage estimate, which in fact still is not complete. On Oct. 22, Gov. George Deukmejian said that “before we talk about a tax increase, we need to know exactly what the costs are.” There still is no firm figure even on highway repair and reinforcement. But the Republican governor and Democratic leaders of the Assembly and Senate already have agreed on a bare-bones $800 million, to be combined with an unknown amount of money that might be available from the state budget reserve, but probably no more than $500 million.

Some officials believe that the quarter-cent boost in the sales tax, which generally is 6 cents on the dollar statewide, but ranges up to 7 cents in some counties with local transportation surcharges, will do little more than match federal funds for highway work.

Monday’s agreement from the governor’s office clearly was crafted with a prudence bordering on fear of the voters, even though two statewide polls released last week indicated public support for a temporary sales tax increase. The California Poll reported 67%-31% backing for a half-cent sales tax increase. At that point, no one had talked of an increase as low as one-fourth cent. Reports in Sacramento are that the governor and key GOP legislators refused to yield to a larger amount, and Democratic leaders--believing the Republicans had an effective veto on the issue--yielded.

There are plenty of political excuses for not doing more--primarily the risk of asking a special tax now and a permanent gasoline tax increase at the June primary election. But this is the time for boldness, not timidity. If the governor and legislative leaders went on statewide television to explain the need, and to call for an adequate response, there would be ample public support for such a program. There is still time to do that.