Posted on 06/07/2009 6:05:14 PM PDT by SmithL
Potholes? Faded road stripes? Downed signs or faulty traffic lights?
Too bad; take a number, and drive carefully.
Among Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals for closing the state's $24 billion budget deficit is to redirect gas-tax away from cities and counties to pay debt service on state highway bonds — draining $744 million from local government coffers in the next fiscal year and $745 million in the year after that.
"It'll have a devastating effect here," said Alameda County's Public Works Director Daniel Woldesenbet. "This isn't just a public works issue, but a public safety issue."
Woldesenbet said his agency stands to lose between 75 percent to all of its gas tax funding dollars — a loss of $15 million to $20 million. And that loss means his agency wouldn't be able to apply for state and federal matching grants, perhaps up to $20 million more.
That money is the "fundamental foundation" of his agency, he said, without which road maintenance, striping, signal repair and much more would come to a stop around the county's unincorporated areas. His agency also supervises the bridges between Oakland and Alameda, which Woldesenbet said could no longer have 24-hour supervision under the proposed cuts.
Between 120 and 130 positions would have to be cut from his agency, now employing about 350, he said. "To mean, if this happens, it is not an acceptable level of quality of life."
Contra Costa County Public Works Director Julie Bueren agreed the outlook is "bleak" as her department faces a loss of up to $15.5 million — a 75-percent reduction in her roads budget. The money potentially lost helps match about $45.8 million in federal funding for 23 transportation projects now under way, she said. The department would have to find ways to protect some of those grants,...
(Excerpt) Read more at insidebayarea.com ...
. . . redirect gas-tax away from cities and counties to pay debt service on state highway bonds
Oh, all those bonds that promised "no new taxes" when they were passed? I guess the price of free money has gone up in the Golden State.
get your own concrete and some buds to fix things, pansies.
Funny.
I notice that “all” of the “hurt” is going to occcur to those STATE agencies which are losing money.
But this same writer NEVER before noticed the taxpayers in CA who would be losing THEIR money to the state to keep these state agencies fully funded.
Privatize the bridges. Get some ready money into the state treasury, pay off the related bond issues, eliminate all the state-related jobs, and eliminate the unfairness of taxing people who don’t use a particular bridge.
LOL - here, hold my beer and watch me fix this bridge...
You are making too much sense... knock it off...
With the rate of flight from CA, no one will be driving on the roads and bridges anymore, so no need to repair them.
I think that I have found the problem:
“But only 22 percent of the estimated $3 billion would go to roads; the rest of the program spending is for mass transit, special transportation for seniors and the disabled, bicycle and pedestrian safety and so on.”
Maybe draining the mother’s milk of money out of the Bay Area will have a beneficial side effect for the rest of us flatlanders.
“I notice that “all” of the “hurt” is going to occcur to those STATE agencies which are losing money.”
Good point but one nit, governments don’t have ‘their’ money. They only have OUR money.
Plenty of conversation topics for my trip!
If the figures were reversed and 78% was actually spent on the roads and the other 22% on social crap these people wouldn’t be having to be laying people off.
Perhaps if they didn’t WASTE so much money building trains, they could pay for their own roads and not be dependent on Uncle Arnie.
... and CA would not be broke.
Man isn’t THAT the truth!
Another job for the private sector!
KRAMER: Ah, you know how in planes they got first class? More leg room, better ride? Well, I'm bringing that concept to mile one-fourteen...you black out lane-lines one and three, and a four-lane highway becomes a two-lane comfort cruise!
Yeah, let's sell it to the Chinese, and let's give them stimulus/bailout money to purchase it with, and the sheeple can pay interest on the loan, and pay a toll to cross the bridge, and pay a carbon tax for the priviledge!
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