PHOENIX – California lawmakers are working quickly to get a comprehensive transportation funding bill ready to go within a month, a potential game-changer for the state's infrastructure finance landscape.
Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Le-n, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-South Gate, set April 6 as a deadline to pass a transportation funding package.
Senate Bill 1, legislation sponsored by San Jose Democrat Sen. Jim Beall, is projected to raise more than $5 billion to help offset an estimated $6 billion annual transportation funding gap. That bill is moving its way toward Senate approval, having passed through the transportation and environmental committees last month, and winning approval from the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on Wednesday.
SB 1 and its companion bill in the Assembly, sponsored by Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, would raise revenues by increasing the registration fee by $38 for gasoline-burning vehicles and $100 for zero-emission vehicles. It would also raise the gas excise tax over three years, increase the diesel excise tax by 20¢ per gallon, and hike the diesel sales tax by 4%. State and local governments would split the revenue.
Beall was close to passing extremely similar legislation at the end of the previous legislative session, but the days allotted to pass bills ticked down to zero before lawmakers could get a completed project to Brown's desk.
Beall's bill is supported by local government groups such as the League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties, who would see their members receive financial help for transportation.
Various business interests also support the bill, though some groups, such as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, have opposed a gas tax increase and said that California's government already receives enough taxes to tackle the problem.
David Wolfe, legislative director for the association, testified Wednesday in opposition to SB1 and told the Senate panel that significant spending reforms need to be undertaken before contemplating new taxes and tax increases.
Some Republican lawmakers have also maintained that transportation legislation should focus on making more efficient use of existing resources before passing further tax increases. Among them is Sen. John Moorlach, an Orange County Republican who has repeatedly criticized the California Department of Transportation for being wasteful and contended that Californians already pay among the highest prices at the pump nationwide.
Moorlach, who sits on the Governance and Finance Committee, has said that he believes gas taxes are a regressive tax that hurts the poor. Speaking Wednesday, Moorlach said that "everyone agrees" that infrastructure action is needed, but said the state is to blame for not acting responsibly about funding the roads.
"We have one of the poorest operating departments of transportation," Moorlach said. "I could give a lecture on it. I won't."
Moorlach questioned whether Beall had investigated the effect SB1 would have on California's "Gann Limit," a 1979 state constitutional amendment limiting the growth in appropriations made by the state and local governments to a rate no more than the percentage increase in the cost of living and the percentage increase in the state or local government's population.
"I think the Department of Finance should give us a response," Beall told Moorlach. "Perhaps we could have that presented to the legislature."
Moorlach was the sole vote against the bill in the committee on Wednesday, with fellow Orange County Republican Janet Nguyen not voting. The bill sailed through on the strength of the votes of the committee's five Democrats, including Beall. Democrats hold two-thirds legislative supermajorities in both the Senate and the Assembly following gains in the 2016 elections.
Backers of Beall's legislation believe it is picking up momentum.
Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Dave Cortese, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and others held a press conference March 6 to push for SB 1.
Unusually wet, heavy weather struck California this winter after what had been a lengthy drought, causing damage to roads and other infrastructure, something the local groups and business interests backing the bill used to highlight the need for new funding.
"If winter 2017 has driven home one lesson it is that infrastructure must be regularly maintained to prevent small problems from becoming larger and more expensive to fix," the Fix Our Roads Coalition, which includes the groups backing the bill, said in a statement.
The group also spoke up following Wednesday's committee passage of the bill, saying it was a positive sign the legislation was continuing to gain momentum.
"SB 1's swift and successful movement through the committee process is a positive sign that we're going to meet the April 6 deadline to get a bill passed and signed by Governor Brown," the group said. "Momentum is continuing to build for passage of a long term, transportation funding fix. That's good news. Everyone knows how long the transportation network has suffered and how much work is needed in the future. It's time to invest in maintaining and rebuilding our network of roads, bridges and infrastructure."
Speaking at that March 6 press conference, Orinda City Council member Amy Worth called for bipartisan cooperation to prevent the infrastructure funding gap from ballooning out of control.
"If the Legislature fails to act, in just 10 years that unmet funding need of $73 billion will grow by $20 billion for local streets and roads," said Worth. "That is just fiscally irresponsible. We urge legislators from both sides of the aisle to support a transportation funding package."
Brown and California Treasurer John Chiang also spoke out about infrastructure in the wake of the Oroville Dam crisis in February.
The primary spillway of the dam north of Sacramento suffered damage amidst the heavy rains, requiring the first-ever use of the 50-year-old dam's emergency spillway.
The water pouring over the emergency spillway eroded the hillside that supports the spillway wall, triggering an evacuation of some 180,000 people from downstream communities. Fortunately the spillway held.
Brown has proposed his own transportation plan that is estimated to generate an annual average increase in transportation funding of $4.2 billion over the next ten years through what the state Legislative Analyst's Office called "a complex series of formulas" that would ultimately only partially address the state's transportation needs.
The developments in California are set against the backdrop of a national conversation about infrastructure investment, a key policy goal of President Donald Trump who has touted a $1 trillion 10-year plan. Many infrastructure advocates believe new federal funding legislation is ultimately necessary to get American roads, bridges and other infrastructure back to world-class levels. On Thursday, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation's infrastructure an overall grade of D-plus in the group's annual "report card."
The next step for Beall's bill is the Senate Appropriations Committee.
