In an attempt to find innovative solutions to the state’s transportation issues, the California Department of Transportation is holding a contest with a cash award for the best idea. One Orange County assemblyman made a submission worthy of the grand prize.
Under Caltrans’ “$25K Find a New Way” contest, the department “will award $25,000 to the Californian with the best unique idea about how to improve the state’s transportation system.”
Assembly Republicans have proposed a number of measures aimed at improving the state’s transportation infrastructure, but the majority Democrats have stymied efforts for so much as a committee hearing, much less a floor vote, on the measures. So Assemblyman Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach, did the next best thing: He bundled the proposals into a nine-point package and submitted them directly to Caltrans by entering the contest.
“Apparently making transportation a government priority is a little too ‘innovative’ for the majority party,” Mr. Harper chided in a statement. “Hopefully the contest judges at Caltrans will give this plan more careful consideration.”
Alas, Mr. Harper’s submission was disqualified because he is a state employee. And Caltrans officials were probably not pleased with the proposal to eliminate 3,500 positions in the department’s capital outlay support program, which a 2014 Legislative Analyst’s Office report said are no longer necessary and cost the state more than $500 million a year. The way the state and Caltrans operate is “one of the most inefficient ways” to staff infrastructure projects, Mr. Harper said in an interview.
Other proposals include eliminating vacant positions, ending the practice of diverting revenue from weight fees imposed on commercial trucks to purposes other than road maintenance, indefinitely reauthorizing the use of public-private partnerships for transportation projects (currently scheduled to expire at the end of next year), streamlining the environmental review process for highway projects (“like the model enacted for the [Sacramento] Kings basketball arena”) and dedicating half of the $400 million slush fund Gov. Jerry Brown gets to spend on his preferred affordable housing, transit and “sustainable communities” projects to state highway and local road projects.
“The reality is we have the funds within the existing budget to provide for our transportation needs,” Mr. Harper told us.
Getting rid of unnecessary positions, reducing regulations, contracting out more transportation projects and actually spending money intended for road maintenance on roads, all withou
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