Davis Hits the Road to Push $15-Billion Plan for Transit

In his latest effort to solve the state’s transportation woes, Gov. Gray Davis proposes to spend $15 billion over the next decade--but is relying on others to foot most of the bill.

Davis begins touring the state today to tout a plan he says would pour $5 billion in state money into urban California’s gridlocked transportation system.

But of that sum, he wants the state to earmark $2.8 billion over four years, and is calling for a statewide vote on a $2.2-billion bond to finance other projects. The governor also is counting on the federal government and local officials to come up with the other $10 billion.

Several lawmakers have been critical of the plan, with Democrats and Republicans alike saying it offers too little, and some Republicans saying the state should not seek approval of a bond when California has record budget surpluses.

But Davis’ plan also will have some appeal to lawmakers. It funds projects in virtually every part of the state, from the Central Valley to San Diego. There’s proposed funding for many Southern California projects, including $2.4 billion for new rail, busway, carpool lane and other undertakings aimed at reducing traffic congestion in Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland Empire.

The proposal offers $777 million in state funding to help the MTA build a light-rail line from Union Station to East Los Angeles and busways in the Mid-Wilshire, Westside and San Fernando Valley areas, and $150 million to buy 385 buses that burn natural gas.

MTA board member and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the governor’s package is “good news for the San Fernando Valley and it’s good news for the region. . . . What he is proposing is a Los Angeles-type system for L.A.--flexible, affordable and functional, and something we may live to actually see built.”

The plan also suggests $550 million to start highway improvements, including the addition of carpool lanes on the San Diego, San Bernardino and Golden State freeways and a small down payment on widening Interstate 5 to 10 lanes from the Orange County line to the Long Beach Freeway.

“People are finally realizing that transportation is important and key in this whole region,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairwoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

Davis’ first plan, offered in January, was sharply criticized for offering little new funding and threatening to take transportation money from local government in what was dubbed a “use it or lose it” policy.

The latest plan comes as some Republicans push for a repeal of the sales tax on gasoline, which adds about $700 million to $1 billion to state coffers annually. Earlier, GOP lawmakers had called for earmarking sales taxes collected on gasoline for transportation needs.

While Davis’ proposal faces tough questions in the Legislature, the governor has been busy courting support outside the Capitol. He spent part of Monday briefing leaders of the California Business Roundtable and the California Chamber of Commerce, winning endorsements from both groups. He heads to San Jose and Los Angeles today to extol the plan, and will be in San Diego and Fresno on Friday.

“It’s an excellent first step aimed at a problem that many Californians experience each day, which is to say congestion on the way to work and home,” said Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable, a business group that has been pushing for transportation improvements.

Davis’ latest attempt at solving the persistent problem of gridlock comes after a three-month study, which included input from politicians and transportation officials from across the state.

Some lawmakers were underwhelmed by the result of that effort. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), who had floated a proposal that would have made it easier for local voters to approve tax hikes for transportation, called the $2.2-billion bond “chump change.”

“A lot of the projects have merit,” Burton said. “But the money proposed wouldn’t bring any of them to fruition.”

Republicans also criticized the bond, pointing out that the cost of a $2.2-billion bond would exceed $4 billion once the interest is paid over 20 or 30 years. Davis would need Republican support to place a bond measure before voters.

With California awash in tax money, the state may have as much as $10 billion in extra revenue when Davis and lawmakers put together the 2000-2001 budget this spring and summer.

“I can’t say there is no room for bonds ever in addressing transportation needs,” said Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach, leader of the Assembly’s minority Republicans. “But I question the need for a bond when we’re swimming in surpluses.”

Additionally, Baugh criticized Davis’ plan for spending too heavily on rail lines and not enough on freeway expansion. He also noted that much of the freeway expansion is devoted to carpool lanes, which are used by a small percentage of commuters.

“You can build all the train systems in the world and the people of California are still going to use their automobiles,” Baugh said.

Environmentalists, however, lauded Davis for boosting mass transit funding, alternative fuels and high-occupancy vehicle lanes.

“It is a very positive step,” said V. John White, a lobbyist for environmentalist groups.

In the introduction to the plan, Davis said he wants to ease traffic congestion for Los Angeles area residents by investing in mass transit and railway projects, expanding commuter and HOV lanes, and assessing regional growth.

“The Los Angeles region’s main transportation arteries--the Santa Monica, San Diego, Golden State and San Bernardino freeways--are among the most heavily traveled roadways in the world,” the governor’s plan notes.

Under the state plan, the Los Angeles region would receive varying levels of funding for more than two dozen projects, including $245 million as a down payment on the Alameda Corridor East project to move freight trains from rail yards east of downtown Los Angeles through the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire, and an additional $40 million to help close a deficit in a light-rail project from Los Angeles to Pasadena.

In a nod to the San Fernando Valley, the plan proposes adding a carpool lane on the San Diego Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass and adding a lane and widening a ramp through the Ventura-San Diego freeway interchange through Sherman Oaks.

Davis’ plan also sets aside $1.49 billion to fund transportation improvements in the San Jose and San Francisco Bay Area, $500 million to pay for deferred local and state highway maintenance, and $5 million for a high-speed rail environmental study.

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Proposed Transit Projects

A $5-billion transportation package being unveiled today by Gov. Gray Davis includes $481 million to build a light rail line from Union Station through Boyle Heights to East Los Angeles and an exclusive busway across the San Fernando Valley. The money, from the state budget surplus and a statewide bond issue, would partially cover the cost of the projects.

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Times staff writer Jeff Rabin contributed to this story.