The Bond Vote Quake: What to Do Now? : This time real leadership--and bipartisanship--is needed

Gov. Pete Wilson concedes he had no plan to fall back on if Proposition 1A, the $2-billion earthquake repair bond issue, failed at the polls. It was not a wise gamble. As everyone knows, Proposition 1A did indeed fail, not narrowly but resoundingly, in a regional split that saw voters in earthquake-hit Los Angeles and San Francisco areas approving the measure while almost everywhere else it went down to defeat. In the wake of that failure no rainbow has appeared in the California sky pointing the way to a pot of gold, no buried treasure has been unearthed on the Capitol grounds in Sacramento. No redemptive substitute has turned up, and that’s why a bold act of political will has now become indispensable if California is to get the earthquake relief money it must have to complement federal dollars.

Wilson’s response to date isn’t the answer. The best he can offer is a plan to juggle gasoline tax revenues so that money will be diverted from road repairs to strengthening highway bridges, certainly an urgent priority given the devastation and disruption that the collapse of even a few such structures on key freeways could cause. But to focus on this single priority will require delaying for years other highway repair projects that are of key importance to protecting and expanding the state’s economy. Additionally, of course, Wilson’s manipulation of fuel tax revenues would do nothing to provide for other vital repairs, especially to badly damaged buildings.

The economic impact of not making these repairs would be severe and far-reaching. The state, for example, was prepared to become the lender of last resort for those who could not otherwise get earthquake-related housing repair loans from banks or the Small Business Administration. Proposition 1A would have made $575 million available for that purpose. But the governor’s post-1A program offers nothing, because a state budget already facing a deficit of billions has nothing to offer.

Without such loans it’s all but certain that hundreds of residential properties in Los Angeles will simply be abandoned by their owners, producing instant neighborhood blight, costing nearby commercial areas their customers, driving down property values and slicing into tax revenues for the city and county. Southern California, as it begins at long last to emerge from the recession, simply can’t accept that.

It’s time for the politicians to stop trying to bamboozle the voters, and for the voters to stop kidding themselves. We can meet the state’s bill for earthquake repairs and retrofitting of hazardous structures, and we can do it at reasonable cost. How? By a temporary one-quarter-cent increase in the sales tax, which would produce about $750 million a year. In less than three years revenues equal to those 1A would have provided would be raised. The tax hike could then disappear.

Wilson must take the lead in seeking such a tax. He deserves--he must have--the responsible support of Kathleen Brown, his Democratic opponent in November, and of both parties in the Legislature. There simply is no feasible alternative to paying for the work that must be done. And there can be no acceptable excuse for failing to act.