SACRAMENTO: As the Legislature on convened special sessions on transportation funding and health-care savings, lawmakers took their first step toward raising taxes and fees on motorists. Embers of a Senate committee tackling a multi-billion backlog of roadway maintenance passed legislation sponsored by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, that would generate $4 billion annually for repairs by increasing the gas tax 12 cents and boosting vehicle registration fees by up to $100.
“We don’t want to dump the cost of our horribly maintained infrastructure on the next generation,” Beall said. “It will be too late to solve the problem if we delay.”The bill will be heard next in an appropriations committee before heading to the Senate floor, where support from Republican lawmakers will be vital to its survival.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday joined Bay Area leaders in Oakland to urge bipartisan cooperation in repairing the state’s roads, bridges, ports and other infrastructure yet studiously avoided saying how he wants it done.He wouldn’t say whether he supports Democratic moves to raise gas taxes or vehicle registration fees. And he wouldn’t say whether he supports Republican moves to cut jobs from Caltrans or to siphon money from the state’s high-speed rail and cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction programs.
