ANAHEIM : Deukmejian Backs Increase in Gas Tax

In town to help sell Orange County voters on a proposed gasoline tax increase for highways, Gov. George Deukmejian seemed to have stumbled into enemy territory on two fronts Thursday.

Even as the governor was addressing a sympathetic audience of builders and developers at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers, county anti-growth advocates were laying the groundwork for a campaign against the transportation tax proposal, which will go before the voters in June.

Meanwhile, outside the hotel a handful of angry Orange County residents lay in wait for the governor, hoping to confront him on another issue: the state’s program of malathion spraying to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly. Their signs read, “Dump the Duke” and “Tourists Warning: Avoid Disneyland.”

The governor, who is not seeking reelection, seemed unruffled by the complaints as he told members of the Orange County Builders Assn. that his last year in office has been an eventful one.

“First there’s an earthquake,” Deukmejian said. “Then there’s an oil spill. Then (former California Gov.) Jerry Brown appears on the scene and shortly thereafter the Medfly reappears.”

Deukmejian then turned to the subject of his speech, urging the association to “spare no effort” in the campaign to win voter support for his transportation tax plan. The proposal will go to the voters in June in the form of two initiatives, Proposition 111 and a companion measure, Proposition 108.

The proposal would raise $18.5 billion over the next decade for highways by doubling the state gasoline tax, lifting the legal limit on state spending and increasing truck fees. In Orange County, the measure would provide funding for widening Pacific Coast Highway and the Santa Ana Freeway, which will otherwise be indefinitely delayed, Deukmejian said.

Over the next decade, traffic congestion around the state is expected to increase by 35%, Deukmejian said, and 8 million more cars are expected to travel California highways by the year 2010.

Despite those dire warnings, anti-growth advocates said Thursday they will fight the tax proposal, resurrecting Citizens Against Unfair Taxation, the group that led the defeat of the county’s 1984 Measure A proposal, which called for a 1-cent sales tax increase for transportation.

The governor’s proposal would simply allow more homes to be built and lead to more highway congestion, complained Tom Rogers, a San Juan Capistrano rancher and organizer of the opposition.

Added Rogers: “As a matter of fact, it perpetuates gridlock in Southern California.”