SACRAMENTO — As the Legislature on Wednesday convened special sessions on transportation funding and health-care savings, lawmakers took their first step toward raising taxes and fees on motorists.
Members of a Senate committee tackling a multi-billion backlog of roadway maintenance passed legislation sponsored by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, that would generate $4 billion annually for repairs by increasing the gas tax 12 cents and boosting vehicle registration fees by up to $100.
“We don’t want to dump the cost of our horribly maintained infrastructure on the next generation,” Beall said. “It will be too late to solve the problem if we delay.”
The bill will be heard next in an appropriations committee before heading to the Senate floor, where support from Republican lawmakers will be vital to its survival.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday joined Bay Area leaders in Oakland to urge bipartisan cooperation in repairing the state’s roads, bridges, ports and other infrastructure — yet studiously avoided saying how he wants it done.
He wouldn’t say whether he supports Democratic moves to raise gas taxes or vehicle registration fees. And he wouldn’t say whether he supports Republican moves to cut jobs from Caltrans or to siphon money from the state’s high-speed rail and cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction programs.
“My approach to bringing people together is not to prematurely close the door. … I’m not going to put all my cards on the table this morning,” he said during a news conference at the Port of Oakland’s headquarters in Jack London Square. “This is a big challenge. How we’re going to get to the end of it isn’t exactly clear this morning.”
But he said he didn’t know how things would work out when he delved into California’s water infrastructure bond or closing the state’s yawning budget deficit. Yet both ended up getting done with bipartisan support, he noted.
Building such support now means not starting with any set-in-stone positions, he said.
“I’m staying above the fray here. … What you’re getting here is the opening chapter in a longer novel,” he said. “I find this particular approach of mine has worked in the past and I will continue to use it.”
Because tax and fee increases require support from two-thirds of lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature, Democrats will need the help of Republicans, some of whom have indicated they’re open to hiking the gas tax for the first time in more than 20 years — but only if the money is restricted to transportation improvements. Democrats also have dangled the idea of boosting tobacco taxes to close the health care gap.
Brown telegraphed his support for raising prices at the pump in his January inaugural address when he asked Democrats and Republicans to do the “impossible” and craft an agreement to improve transportation infrastructure. Current revenue from California’s 42.35-cent gas tax covers only a fraction of the state’s annual highway repair needs.
Last week, business organizations such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group said any deal should seek to raise at least $6 billion annually by raising gas and diesel taxes and increasing vehicle registration and license fees.
Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, also at Wednesday’s news conference, made no bones about it: The state needs more money to grapple with its aging roads and bridges, so California must move “to the next generation of transportation funding” with bipartisan buy-in on “a new, fair funding stream that benefits all California communities.”
Getting the Republican votes needed for any tax increase “could be a bumpy road,” said Atkins, D-San Diego, but “the one thing we can’t afford is for it to be a dead end.”
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