$90-Billion Building Plan Proposed for State

A coalition of some of California’s biggest private employers has unveiled a proposal for a 10-year, $90-billion state government construction program.

The California Business Roundtable plan calls for the state to issue an additional $25.3 billion in bonds over the next decade and to dedicate a quarter-cent of each dollar of future sales tax growth to finance massive investment in infrastructure.

Phil Quigley, former chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Telesis Group, described the proposal as “an infrastructure wake-up call” that he said is needed because, for more than 20 years, California has not been making investments in schools, highways, water systems and other facilities to keep pace with the state’s population growth.

“We now devote 2% to 3% [of the state budget] to infrastructure, compared to 20% to 25% two to three decades ago,” he said. “Our highway capacity has increased 7% in 20 years, while our population has increased 50%.”

The Roundtable proposal is a 10-year plan to spend $29.4 billion on transportation needs, $28.4 billion on public schools, $13.6 billion on new college and university facilities, $9.2 billion on prisons and other corrections facilities, $7.5 billion on parks and similar facilities and $2.3 billion on other capital needs.

That is about $10 billion more than was recommended by an infrastructure needs inventory last year by the state Department of Finance.

Roundtable members said the biggest difference is in the needs of California schools, which they believe the state report underestimated.

Roundtable President Bill Hauck said the key to success is a comprehensive approach that balances all infrastructure needs in a single, long-term plan, rather than depending on start-and-stop, year-to-year appropriations with changing priorities.

Quigley said that with a new governor and scores of other officials taking office, 1999 will be politically the ideal time to enact a coordinated long-term plan.

But he and other Roundtable leaders said they do not underestimate the political difficulty of enacting their proposal.