State Appeals to U.S. Over Highway Aid

In an 11th-hour appeal, Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders Friday asked the Clinton administration not to cut off nearly $100 million in federal highway aid to California.

The loss of funds was scheduled to occur today because the Legislature failed to resolve a deadlock over whether to extend California’s so-called “smoke a joint, lose your license” law.

But as the deadline neared, the Republican governor and bipartisan leaders of the Senate and Assembly appealed for more time to reach a solution.

“California cannot afford sanctions of this magnitude, especially while we face costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars to repair our transportation infrastructure following this January’s deadly storms,” they told federal Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater in a letter.

The letter expressed “confidence” that the legislative impasse would be broken soon and asked Slater for an open-ended extension while an agreement is pursued.

Jim Pinkellman, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration, declined to say whether an extension would be granted. “We are continuing to work with California very closely on the issue. We understand the state is making progress,” he said.

Legislative sources said Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) and Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), who signed the letter with Wilson, were especially eager to get the issue behind them before Vice President Al Gore arrives in mid-March for a speech to the Legislature.

As a condition of receiving their full share of federal highway funds, states may take one of two courses. They can pass a law that would suspend for six months or revoke the driver’s licenses of people convicted of drug offenses, regardless of whether the violation involved a motor vehicle, or they can formally declare their opposition to doing so.

Failure to act can result in a 10% reduction in federal construction and maintenance funds--in California’s case, an estimated $92 million to $100 million in 1997.

Eighteen states, including California, have enacted laws that suspend or revoke the driving privileges of drug law violators. Another 32 have declared their opposition to doing so. But California’s current “smoke a joint, lose your license” law, which passed last summer during the final hectic days of the 1996 legislative session, expired at midnight Friday.

On Feb. 19, Jane F. Garvey, acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, warned that if the matter was not settled by today, California will be “immediately subject” to the loss of federal funds.

The next day, the Assembly passed a Wilson-backed bill to extend the law until Oct. 1, 1999. But the bill conflicts with a pending Senate measure that would declare California’s opposition to automatic license suspensions or revocations for drug offenses. As a result, the two houses are deadlocked.

Opponents of the “smoke a joint, lose your license” law say it unfairly penalizes minor drug offenders whether or not their offenses involve a motor vehicle.

California has long had a separate law requiring the suspension of a driver’s license for people convicted of driving under the influence of illegal drugs.

In recent years, California and the federal government squabbled over a wide variety of mandates, on issues ranging from welfare to drugs to smog. Virtually every time, they reached an accord that resulted in no substantial financial penalty to the state.

At various times during the last six years, California has been out of compliance with the federal driver’s license law, but has not suffered permanent sanctions.