Hopefuls diverge on road repairs
California’s highways, roads, dams and bridges are in bad shape and getting worse, and the six leading candidates to become the state’s next governor all agree that something must be done.
But that unusual show of political unity quickly comes apart when the question turns to what, exactly, needs to be done and how to go about it.
The two top Republicans in the race, Orange County Assemblyman Travis Allen and businessman John Cox, want to do more with less. The state already has enough money to fix California’s deteriorating infrastructure without any new taxes, they argue, if state officials would only keep a tighter rein on spending.
The four leading Democrats view the problem differently. State Treasurer John Chiang, former state schools chief Delaine Eastin, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa all believe the state needs more cash to deal with Californian’s concerns
quickly.
Promises aren’t going to be enough for Californians tired of having their teeth rattled by trips over washboard roads or finding their cars battered by ever-deepening potholes. A February study by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association found that improved roads would save California drivers about $310 apiece in annual car repairs.
Last year’s near-disaster at Oroville Dam, where storm damage to an aging and crumbling spillway forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream, was a stark reminder of the danger of delaying upgrades and repairs to the state’s public facilities.
The state has recognized the problem and tried to make a start at financing its estimated $130 billion repair bill.
In 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed through SB1, which raised the state gas tax by 12 cents a gallon to generate $5.2 billion a year for road and bridge repairs. But Republicans and antitax conservatives already are looking to put an initiative to repeal the gas tax increase on the November ballot.
There’s also plenty of controversy over Brown’s strong support for a high-speed rail system linking Southern California and the Bay Area with a route through the Central Valley. Fast-growing costs and a stretched-out construction schedule have left plenty of people wondering if the system is still worth the price tag.
Here’s where the candidates stand on the state’s infrastructure issues: ⏩ Bottom line: “I know the money is there without raising taxes,” Allen said. “We just need to start running the state as a business.”
⏩ Gas tax: Repealing the gas tax is a key part of Allen’s campaign. He voted against the plan in the Legislature and was one of the first to call for putting a repeal measure on the November ballot.
“Jerry Brown’s decision to push through the largest gas tax increase in California’s history without the approval of voters demonstrated a complete disregard for ordinary Californians,” he said. Putting it on the ballot would “allow the people of California to decide for themselves if they want to raise their taxes.”
Cutting waste and refocusing the state’s priorities will allow California to spend its existing transportation money more efficiently, he said.
⏩ High-speed rail: There would be no place for highspeed rail, which he calls “the train to nowhere,” in Gov. Allen’s California.
“I’d defund high-speed rail and return the money to the people of California,” he said. “But I’d leave what’s up there now as a monument to Jerry Brown’s folly.” ⏩ Bottom line: “If you have a leaking roof, you’ve got to fix it,” Chiang said. “If that roof falls in, it’s more expensive . ... It’s costing us more now because we’ve underinvested.”
⏩ Gas tax: Increasing the gas tax for the first time since 1994 has helped create a permanent revenue stream to provide some of the billions of dollars needed to repair deteriorating roads and bridges, Chiang said.
Gas tax revenue “will directly improve the roads and highways Californians use every day,” he said. “However, it’s critical that any revenue is used exclusively for transportation infrastructure.”
⏩ High-speed rail: Chiang sees it as a way of uniting California.
High-speed rail “can connect the people getting STEM degrees at UC Merced with jobs at Google and other technology companies” in Silicon Valley or Southern California, he said.
Finding the billions needed to complete the project is key, Chiang admitted.
“If the Central Valley to Santa Clara was the only leg, people would be investing in it, because it connects (affordable) homes to jobs,” he said. “That piece has to be built.” ⏩ Bottom line: “California is very wasteful,” Cox said, arguing that it costs the state four times as much to build a mile of road as it does in Texas. “In my businesses, I watch every nickel, and I’d do that as governor.”
⏩ Gas tax: Cox makes no secret of his opposition to the gas tax. In fact, the first thing someone sees when they call up his campaign website is a box asking them to sign the petition for a repeal election in November.
“We can’t keep going into the pockets of working-class people, grinding them into poverty,” Cox said. “People in Menlo Park ... don’t care, but other people are moving farther from work, and higher gas prices mean more costs.” ⏩ High-speed rail: Cox opposes what he calls “the crazy train” and has promised to stop construction if he’s elected. The project “is a monument to corruption,” Cox said, arguing that it shouldn’t have been built down the middle of the Central Valley, where its right of way has claimed farmland and businesses and provoked a flood of lawsuits.
“Why not put it down the middle of Interstate 5, where we already have the land?” he asked. ⏩ Bottom line: “For too long, our basic infrastructure has been allowed to crumble,” Eastin said. “It’s going to take serious effort and long-range planning to fix this mess. We cannot keep borrowing money to build shiny new projects without first fixing what we already have.”
⏩ Gas tax: Money from the tax is a crucial part of any effort to repair California roads and bridges, Eastin said.
If a repeal measure makes the November ballot, “we need to pass the gas tax,” she said. “We also need to spend some of that money on transit, to get people out of their cars.”
It’s important to make people realize that the money from the gas tax will go right back to them in the form of better roads and improved transportation, Eastin said.
⏩ High-speed rail: Eastin admits to mixed feelings about the rail plan and argues that she — and the state — have higher priorities.
“I’m a fan of the concept, but I don’t want to see general obligation bonds used, since they make everything more expensive,” she said.
If there were an identified revenue source for the project, she would be more supportive, Eastin said.
One way to raise money for high-speed rail, she said, is with an oil severance tax on companies that extract fossil fuels, something the state has been talking about — and rejecting — for years. ⏩ Bottom line: California needs to look at innovative ways to finance improvements, Newsom said, including making better use of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.
“It needs to be fueled,” possibly with an annual appropriation, he said. “We can leverage our money,” lending it out for needed public infrastructure projects and then using that money for more projects as the loans are repaid with interest.
⏩ Gas tax: Newsom supports it, and calls the vote by legislative Democrats and a handful of Republicans “a profile in courage,” considering voters hate taxes of all types.
“We have to talk about the projects being built and completed” to win over voters, he said. “We have to get projects done quickly and prove that those dollars won’t get wasted.”
⏩ High-speed rail: While Newsom has become less enthusiastic about the project as the schedule has lengthened and the price tag has grown, he still wants the rail system built.
Connecting the Central Valley to Silicon Valley could be a huge boost to the state’s economy, he says. Extending bullet trains to Los Angeles “is a question of resources,” but “if we get the first phase done, we can develop the technology and get the private sector involved” in a Southern California expansion. ⏩ Bottom line: The former Los Angeles mayor wants to see changes in the California Environmental Quality Act, the 1970s law that requires developers to identify and mitigate the environmental impacts of their projects.
“CEQA is broken,” he told an Orange County audience last year. “It slows everything and makes everything cost more.”
⏩ Gas tax: Villaraigosa supports the tax, which he said provides much-needed money for road repairs. But he has some concerns.
“We can’t spend it on other things when times are bad — it’s got to be used to repair our roads, bridges and highways,” he argued in November.
While the new tax may be needed, it hits the poor hard, he said, which means the state can’t just boost taxes every time roads need to be repaired.
“A 12-cent tax on gas for working people, for the poor, for people who have long commutes — that’s tough,” he said, saying the state needs to look at additional ways to raise the money needed.
⏩ High-speed rail: Villaraigosa calls it essential to California’s economic development.
The rail system will “connect the two engines of the California economy,” providing the coastal giants with a link to the affordable housing in the Central Valley and allowing valley residents access to the good-paying jobs on the coast, he said.
The changes in the rail construction plan and the more realistic funding figures have made a difference, Villaraigosa said. “I’m for it now.”