California IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Quake Tax Revenue Falls Short

A special quarter-cent sales tax levy that ran through 1990 will not raise enough money to cover all the damage bills California must pay for the Loma Prieta earthquake of October, 1989, state administrators say. The revenues from the tax will fall an estimated $180 million short of the nearly $1-billion state repair cost for the Bay Area quake, according to the latest estimates by Gov. George Deukmejian’s office. Lawmakers and Deukmejian have known since the special tax began 13 months ago that the revenue raised would very likely fall short, but they did not know by how much. Caltrans says it needs an extra $300 million just to repair overpasses and sections of highways damaged by the quake.