CA: Stop sought to taking tax (amendment to prop 42)

The Press-Enterprise ^ | March 12, 2004 | BRADLEY WEAVER

[calcowgirl]

Stop sought to taking tax
LEGISLATION: A proposed amendment would prevent gas funds from being used elsewhere.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to close the state budget gap with money earmarked for road projects is under attack by a group of legislators who want to make it illegal for the state to dip into transportation funds to pay for other services.

Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Palm Desert, co-authored a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday that would protect Prop. 42 gas-tax money and other funds from state borrowing. Prop. 42, a March 2002 initiative dedicating gasoline sales tax to road maintenance and construction, passed by some of its largest margins in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

But since its approval two years ago, little has gone to transportation projects. Last year, lawmakers and the Davis administration took most of the $1.1 billion in gas-tax funds to pay for other state services. And Schwarzenegger wants to shift all of it during 2004-2005.

Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Palm Desert, wants to protect gas-tax money from other uses.

"We're hoping that this sends the right message and we make a change," Benoit said. "Riverside County ... simply cannot afford to have transportation dollars cut off."

Critics say the diversion of road funds has drained highway accounts and jeopardized transportation planning statewide. In San Bernardino County, about a dozen projects - including freeway widening in Redlands and San Bernardino - face losing $170 million of previously approved funds.

"Voters believe this is money that's supposed to go to transportation, and we're going to lobby for that," said Darren Kettle, director of freeway construction in San Bernardino County. "If this money is lost, then the projects we've been hoping for will either get delayed or never get built."

Prop. 42 allows money to be diverted in emergencies if the Legislature approves by a two-thirds vote. That's the loophole Benoit and others want to erase.

"I do think it's been abused," said Assemblyman Tom Harman, author of the amendment. "Gov. Davis abused it, and Gov Schwarzenegger is threatening to abuse it."

Schwarzenegger aides said the state's budget problems give the governor no choice but to call for Prop. 42 suspension.

The governor's secretary of business, transportation and housing, Sunny McPeak, recently said that if California's financial outlook improves over the next few years, the state can resume using gas-tax funds for transportation projects.

The legislation marks one of the most direct challenges yet by some GOP lawmakers to parts of the Republican governor's budget strategy. Assemblyman Russ Bogh, R-Cherry Valley, has introduced legislation to increase the vote required to suspend Prop. 42 from two-thirds to four-fifths.

If approved by the Legislature, both amendments would have to be approved by voters. The earliest either could go on the ballot would be November.

Yet the proposed amendments face an uphill climb. Beyond the governor's possible opposition, many members of the Democrat-controlled Legislature put transportation behind health and welfare during the state's tough fiscal times.

Members of the California Transportation Commission submitted a report to the Legislature in January, saying local governments need a reliable funding source for road work that can't be touched when the state's fiscal well runs dry.

"The real problem is you can't address transportation in isolation," David Brewer, the group's deputy director, said Thursday. "It's mixed in with the general fund, so it's not firewalled or protected like other areas of the budget."

A week after voters approved Schwarzenegger's proposed $15 billion bond measure to help balance the state budget, state Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, and others say they will lobby the governor to return $1 billion that was removed last year for the state highway fund.

"It's a necessity, for our sakes, that we get that money back where it belongs," he said.

Staff writer Jim Miller contributed to this report.
Reach Bradley Weaver at (909) 368-9519 or bweaver@pe.com

[John Jorsett]

I think it's time for this change. We doubled the gas tax in 1990, ostensibly for "congestion relief", and it's turned into just another honey pot for Sacramento to plunder.