SACRAMENTO: Gov. Jerry Brown urged lawmakers to reach an agreement on how to pay for billions of dollars in needed road and highway repairs in California, without committing support for any current proposals.Brown’s administration says California faces a $59 billion backlog in infrastructure repairs over the next decade. He called a special session of the state Legislature to address it, but lawmakers have been slow to act.
Democrats are floating several possible tax increases to repair potholes and bridges, but Republican lawmakers whose votes would be needed have rejected the ideas. They are instead urging the state to shift money from other programs to pay for infrastructure.Brown joked that as governor in 1982 it was Republicans who wanted him to raise the gas tax, but he talked them down to a lower figure before he agreed.
“I can understand where the Republicans are coming from but the potholes don’t wait, the congestion doesn’t wait,” he said at a news conference Wednesday in Oakland, where he met with local leaders and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.”I’m not going to try to say where the revenue’s going to come from, how we’re going to get it,” he said. Lawmakers from both parties agree the state’s transportation tax structure is out of date and heavily reliant on a gas tax that has not increased in 20 years.
Today’s cars are more fuel efficient and electric car drivers pay little to maintain the roads they drive on.Transportation advocates and lawmakers have proposed a variety of fixes, including hiking fees on gas, vehicle registration and licenses; re-directing money used to pay off state debt back to road projects; and converting carpool lanes into paid toll ways. Brown’s administration is studying how to eventually tax drivers for miles traveled instead of gas guzzled.
