Caltrans to Pay $100,000 for Float to Promote Ride-Sharing

The California Department of Transportation, so financially strapped six months ago that it sought approval of a gasoline tax hike, is investing $100,000 in a float for the Tournament of Roses parade.

The expenditure has caught criticism from some lawmakers who say spending money on a parade float sends the wrong message to voters who agreed in June to tax themselves an additional 9 cents per gallon of gas to improve roads and transit systems.

“It looks like Caltrans has more money than it needs,” complained Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). “The problem is, we do need to put every dime we can get on fixing the roads or encouraging alternative forms of transportation.” Noting that the float will have a ride-sharing theme, Katz said this was a goal worth promoting but that using an expensive parade float “will look to most people like a waste of money.”

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) put it more bluntly. He said the float investment was a bad decision that Caltrans should reverse.

A Caltrans official said the float was the idea of a public relations consulting firm hired to provide advice for an $8.4-million ride-sharing promotion. With thousands of people lining the parade route in Pasadena on New Year’s Day and millions more watching on television, he said, the consultant believed a float with a ride-sharing theme would have immense visibility.

“As long as it’s a proper expenditure of public funds, we defer to his (the contractor’s) judgment and this was a proper use of the funds,” said Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago.

Charles Seifert, account executive for the San Francisco consulting firm of MacDaniels, Henry and Sproul, said the firm would not have carried out the idea if state officials had objected.

The only condition state officials put on the $100,000 Caltrans expenditure, he said, was that other contributors pay half of the $200,000 total cost. Those contributors are the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Southern California Gas Co., General Telephone and the County Transportation Commission.

Seifert said the float, stressing the theme “The Magic of Ride-Sharing,” will feature an East Indian snake charmer and other fantasy figures.