Governor: Highways Face Cuts if Gas Tax Fails

Without the passage of a gas tax increase this year, Gov. George Deukmejian warned Wednesday that the state’s transportation program will have to absorb $533 million in budget cuts that would force a moratorium in new highway construction until July, 1991.

The delay in the awarding of new construction contracts would postpone completion of such showcase transportation projects as Los Angeles County’s Century Freeway and the Harbor Freeway transitway, as well as the widening of Interstate 5 in Orange County.

A $52-million state contribution toward Los Angeles’ Metro Rail would also be eliminated.

But some lawmakers accused Deukmejian of tailoring the transportation cuts so that vote-rich areas of the state would feel the cuts the most and be more inclined to endorse the tax hike.

“I think the governor is very Machiavellian in cutting Metro Rail as a way to get people in Los Angeles to vote for (the gas tax proposal),” Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) said.

The governor, who is leading a campaign to win voter approval of a 9-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase in June, painted the bleak picture of California’s transportation future in his final budget proposal to the Legislature. It was the first time his Administration presented a definitive outline of the effect failure of the gas tax increase would have on the transportation system.

For the state Department of Transportation to live within its finances, Deukmejian said, many major programs would have to be either reduced or eliminated, a hiring freeze would have to be instituted and new equipment purchases would be severely curtailed. He said none of the cutbacks would be necessary if the tax increase is endorsed by the voters.

Deukmejian suggested that Caltrans could save $102 million by eliminating all construction projects paid for entirely by state funds, $120 million by discontinuing the department’s use of private engineers, $64 million by withholding funds earmarked for mass transit--including $52 million for Los Angeles’ Metro Rail project--$58 million by hiring and equipment cutbacks and $65 million by delaying new construction.

The programs that would remain intact under his proposal include seismic retrofitting of bridges, litter collection--a pet project with the Republican governor--and maintenance of highways. But even while highway maintenance funds would not be cut, Deukmejian noted that there would be no increases “to handle added inventory on the system or to reduce maintenance backlogs.”

Nearly all the programs slated for financial surgery are supported either entirely or in part by the state’s beleaguered 9-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax. For years officials have complained that the gas tax, one of the lowest in the nation, has not produced enough revenue for the transportation system to keep pace with inflation and the state’s phenomenal growth in population.

The tax increase--which cannot go into effect unless voters approve a constitutional amendment in June to modify the state’s spending limit--would help pay for an $18.5-billion program designed to expand the highway system, ease congestion, construct mass transit facilities and catch up on projects.

“Basically the governor’s budget is realistically grim,” said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). “If (the gas tax) does not pass there will not be enough money to both maintain roads and expand the system. It will delay projects which will mean increasing congestion . . . and the nightmare continues.”

Both legislators and Caltrans officials saw the new construction moratorium as having the most severe impact on California’s transportation system. State Finance Director Jesse R. Huff said it “really translates into a deferral of $350 million worth of projects” because of lost federal matching funds.