Attention for the Quiet Crisis

The long-term decay of California’s infrastructure is a quiet crisis that few in Sacramento are prepared to handle comprehen- sively. Consequently, the state’s roads, schools, bridges and buildings continue to deteriorate. In 1997, Sacramento reported that infrastructure needs would total more than $80 billion over the next 15 years, but such alarms typically elicit yawns in the state capital, where political vision tends to stop at the next election day.

That should change now that the state’s corporate giants have joined the issue. The California Business Roundtable has released a report, based on a yearlong study, that says infrastructure needs will reach at least $90 billion between now and the year 2007.

It’s an alarming story: California ranks 40th among the 50 states in overall infrastructure development as a proportion of personal income, 48th in highway spending, 41st in higher education and 38th in public school facilities.

State coffers can cover less than $60 billion, two-thirds of the predicted cost, a Roundtable task force found. It proposed some modest measures to close that gap, including a 50-50 state-local match for school construction, diversion of $11.8 billion in state sales tax revenues for a variety of projects and the issuance of more than $25 billion in new state bonds.

One key is development of a capital construction program to project long-term needs and priorities, another subject largely ignored in Sacramento. Without a plan, the state tends to dole out money to the interest groups that make the most political noise. This ad hoc construction budgeting must cease.

Sacramento cynics might ask why this study should be taken any more seriously than all the others. Reason No. 1: the Roundtable seems determined to put its considerable clout behind the plan, beginning with meetings with key lawmakers and the candidates for governor.

Roundtable leaders emphasized the absolute necessity of a modern infrastructure to the economic growth of the state, a line that should be repeated time and again. This festering crisis must raise a clamor that Sacramento cannot ignore.