CA: Highway fund allocation plan comes under fire (Sanders, Núñez say south state gets shortchanged)

San Diego Union - Tribune ^ | 2/21/07 | Ed Mendel

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO – From Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, politicians at all levels are complaining about a transportation commission staff proposal to allocate the first highway funds from a record $19.9 billion transportation bond approved by voters in November.

As a result, the California Transportation Commission may make major changes in the staff recommendation before making a decision next Wednesday to allocate $4.5 billion in bond funds designated for highways to improve “corridor mobility.”

The harshest criticism came from Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, who said the staff plan would give Los Angeles County only 12 percent of an initial proposed allocation of $2.8 billion. Núñez said the plan ignored an Interstate 405 project cited at a news conference last year by the governor and others as a reason for approving the bond, Proposition 1B, which was intended to improve freeways, public transit and air quality at California ports.

Núñez said he would consider putting an additional $5 billion bond on the ballot next year if more money is needed.

Schwarzenegger in a letter yesterday urged the commission to reconsider 10 projects omitted from the staff recommendation, including I-405. None of the projects ... are in San Diego County.

--snip--

When Schwarzenegger and the Legislature made the transportation bond the centerpiece of a $37.3 billion public works bond package on the ballot last fall, legislative leaders said they chose not to designate specific projects to avoid criticism that the plan was laden with “pork” projects for their own districts.

Núñez said yesterday that the distribution of the bond money must be “nonpolitical.” At the same time, he said, the allocation has to be fair and follow the usual formulas that have traditionally given ... Southern California 60 percent of transportation funds and Northern California 40 percent.

[marsh2]

State rural infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating. The population-based allocations continuously leave nothing for rural areas. In addition, rural County road budgets have been decimated by failure to reauthorize the federal Secure Rural Schools and Counties Self-Determination Act, which backfilled counties for the loss of historic timber receipts due to environmental/endangered species restrictions on timber harvest. (Historically 25% of timber receipts went to the counties to offset impacts on the tax base to school districts and county roads cause by the presence of huge National Forests and Wilderness lands.)

In our small rural N. CA county that meant a $4 million loss to schools and a drop in road revenues of from $4 million to $250,000. This is half the county road budget and could mean lay-offs of half the county road staff.

If the state does not step up and support the rural counties with road funding, we are likely to see $billions in infrastructure destroyed due to lack of maintenance.