Gov. Seeks to Divert Transit Funds Again

Freeway and transit improvements cannot come soon enough for motorists in Southern California, home of the nation’s worst traffic congestion.

But under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget plan, more than $700 million for transportation projects in Southern California would instead be diverted to other uses.

“Pretty much every part of the region will suffer because of this,” said Hasan Ikhrata, director of transportation policy and planning for the Southern California Assn. of Governments. “This is a silent storm.... Congestion will be worse. Air quality will be worse. Cities will have potholes that won’t be repaired.”

New highway and transit projects that could be delayed for several more years, if the governor’s plan is adopted, include:

* Improving northbound and southbound connectors between the 405 and 101 freeways to ease bottlenecks at one of the most traffic-choked interchanges in the nation. Parts of it are completed.

* Extending the planned Expo light-rail line to Santa Monica. The project is in the engineering phase, and there is only enough financing to build tracks from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City.

* Adding carpool lanes to portions of the 405, 10 and 71 freeways in Los Angeles County.

* Building overpasses or underpasses to allow motorists safe passage at rail crossings in Orange County.

* Widening California 23 between the 118 and 101 freeways in Ventura County.

* Widening six miles of Interstate 215, north of the 10 Freeway, in San Bernardino County.

* Adding lanes and improving ramps to the 91 Freeway through downtown Riverside.

The jeopardized funding is part of the $1.3 billion in Proposition 42 gas tax revenues that were supposed to be devoted statewide to new transportation projects. The governor wants to divert all of that money to other uses this year to help fill the state’s budget shortfall and pay it back to transportation agencies over 15 years with a promise that such borrowing would stop in 2007.

Proposition 42, passed by voters in 2002, sets aside a portion of gas taxes for new freeway and transit projects but allows for its suspension in times of fiscal emergencies.

Sunne Wright McPeak, Schwarzenegger’s secretary of the Business, Housing and Transportation Agency, said the state was in such dire financial shape that borrowing transportation funding was the only way to avoid deep cuts in other critical services.

“It is really important to recognize that the governor ruled out just taking the money” and instead decided to repay it, McPeak said. “There is no question that the governor is committed to transportation.”

The governor’s budget still contains about $8 billion for various transportation-related expenses and salaries, not including the Department of Motor Vehicles. But others criticized the governor’s plan, saying it amounts to a 15-year, zero-interest loan from transportation agencies to the state government -- with no guarantees that future governors or state lawmakers would refrain from extending the repayment period further.

“This budget ... pays no attention to meeting any of our transportation needs,” said Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), chairwoman of the Assembly transportation committee, who plans to propose legislation that would bar the state from diverting transportation funds in the future. “It basically saddles a whole generation of Californians with debt.”

The governor’s plan, if adopted, would be the third year in a row that Proposition 42 has been suspended. Among some local transportation agencies, the financial outlook is so bleak that they have stopped putting new projects in the planning pipeline.

“You may not be paying more in ... taxes, but you’ll be paying more to fix your car, to sit in traffic,” said Michael Turner, government relations manager for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

In Los Angeles County, which the Texas Transportation Institute has ranked as the worst-congested metropolitan area in the nation, some freeways already are at a virtual standstill.

Along portions of the 405, 101, 14 and 10 freeways, the average rush-hour speed already is less than 10 miles per hour.

“Somebody is going to have to do something about the traffic,” said Lillian Marsh, a 73-year-old retiree from Lakeview Terrace who was interviewed this week at the Automobile Club of Southern California office in Van Nuys. “It’s taken far too long to come up with a solution.”

Others there said they were skeptical of Schwarzenegger’s promise to make it illegal to divert future gas tax money.

“You’re making a law that would tie your own hands just because you’re afraid you’ll take from the cookie jar,” said Jeff Bernhardt, a 43-year-old Valley Glen teacher and social worker who was visiting the Auto Club. “If you don’t want to take the money, then why are you taking the money?”

In a scathing report to the state Legislature released last week, the California Transportation Commission blamed the practice of borrowing Proposition 42 funds for holding up untold numbers of highway and transit improvements throughout the state.

“California’s transportation program is in crisis and on the verge of collapse,” commission members wrote in the report. “This failure to invest in transportation is jeopardizing the future of California’s economy, reducing the mobility of people and goods.”

Over the last two years, California has lost 50,000 jobs that would have been created in construction and other fields had transportation projects moved forward, according to the state commission.

Putting off needed projects also means taxpayers probably would be stuck with higher bills later for the same improvements, analysts say. For example, roadways that aren’t maintained on a timely basis fall apart sooner, and reconstruction will cost several times more than routine repaving.

“As you continue to under- invest in transportation, it reduces our quality of life and erodes our economic potential,” said Stephen Finnegan, transportation policy manager for the Automobile Club of Southern California. “There are more potholes and worse congestion. Every year that the problem is put off, it gets harder to fix.”

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Transportation funding

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Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget plan, the state would divert $1.3 billion that had been earmarked for freeway and transit projects to other uses. This is how much of that amount that counties in the region stand to lose:

* Los Angeles County: $332 million

* Orange County: $119.8 million

* Riverside County: $45.6 million

* San Bernardino County: $115.3 million

* Ventura County: $103.9 million

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Source: Save Proposition 42 Coalition

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Los Angeles Times