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Transportation Funding in California: Gov. Brown Urges Lawmakers to Address Backlog in Infrastructure Repairs

California’s roads and highways are in bad shape, Gov. Jerry Brown said at a press conference in Oakland, where he urged state lawmakers on Wednesday to reach an agreement on how to pay for billions of dollars in needed road and highway repairs in California, without committing support for any current proposals.

Brown's administration says California faces a $59 billion backlog in infrastructure repairs over the next decade. He called a special session of the state Legislature to address it, but lawmakers have been slow to act.

Democrats are floating several possible tax increases to repair potholes and bridges, but Republican lawmakers whose votes would be needed have rejected the ideas. They are instead urging the state to shift money from other programs to pay for infrastructure.

Brown joked that as governor in 1982 it was Republicans who wanted him to raise the gas tax, but he talked them down to a lower figure before he agreed.

"I can understand where the Republicans are coming from but the potholes don't wait, the congestion doesn't wait,'' he said at a news conference Wednesday in Oakland, where he met with local leaders and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.

"I'm not going to try to say where the revenue's going to come from, how we're going to get it,'' he said.

Lawmakers from both parties agree the state's transportation tax structure is out of date and heavily reliant on a gas tax that has not increased in 20 years. Today's cars are more fuel efficient and electric car drivers pay little to maintain the roads they drive on.

Transportation advocates and lawmakers have proposed a variety of fixes, including hiking fees on gas, vehicle registration and licenses; re-directing money used to pay off state debt back to road projects; and converting carpool lanes into paid tollways. Brown's administration is studying how to eventually tax drivers for miles traveled instead of gas guzzled.

On Wednesday, the Bay Area Council, which represents San Francisco Bay Area businesses, proposed a permanent extension of sales taxes included in temporary Proposition 30 taxes approved by voters, urging the state to dedicate the estimated $1.5 billion in annual revenue to transportation projects.

"We need more money for transportation, we need to be more creative about what projects and programs we fund, and we need to be a lot more efficient at turning the money into the projects,'' said president Jim Wunderman.

Interim San Jose Transportation Director Jim Ortbal said neighborhood streets are being neglected because not enough money focuses on the most traveled road ways.

“The reality is, we aren’t able to do the maintenance we need to do, and it’s reflected in the condition of our streets in San Jose,” Ortbal said.

Ortbal said there has been a backlog in road repairs in San Jose for the last two decades. This year alone, he said, the city is short $75 million to repave damaged roads.

A coalition of labor unions, local government groups and influential business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, has outlined a plan incorporating both Democratic and Republican ideas, in which, cities and counties could share roughly $6 billion a year for 10 years.

It would raise revenue by increasing the gas tax and boosting vehicle registration and license fees, and by using some revenue from the state's cap-and-trade program that imposes charges for polluters.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, and other GOP leaders say they want to fund needed transportation projects by redirecting money from cap-and-trade and truck weight fees or eliminating what they see as excess Caltrans jobs.

"We've seen absolutely no movement out of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to institute these needed reforms,'' he said in a statement this week.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said Wednesday that he's not willing to use cap-and-trade funding to fill potholes because there are more effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We need to fix our crumbling infrastructure. At the same time, we need to reduce our carbon footprint. It's not one or the other,'' said de Leon, D-Los Angeles.

There's no deadline for reaching a deal but the regular legislative session finishes Sept. 11.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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