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Friday, April 28, 2006
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VOLUME 106
Issue 14
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County Transportation Bond Proposal At Risk
By James Keene, Executive Director
jkeene@counties.org
Discussions continue to develop a modified infrastructure bond proposal from that under debate just a month ago. We understand that the total number is around $30 billion and intends to deal with education, transportation, flood control, and housing. Details are extremely sketchy to date, but we understand a vote may be coming as soon as next week.
CSAC is aware of an extremely alarming development in that the proposal intended to target monies towards the city street and county road system was reduced to city-only monies. The county portion is currently at risk. CSAC, the League of California Cities and Regional Council of Rural Counties were promoting $2 billion for local streets and roads projects allocated to cities and counties in a very similar manner to the Proposition 42 monies. We understand that the proposal has been reduced in total and now is only directed to cities.
What we do know about California's transportation system is that the secondary highway system within the jurisdiction of county governments is deteriorating at an alarming rate, increasingly more dangerous to travel on and extremely under funded. Over half of the counties face repaving cycles of more than 50 years, when they should be at 20-year levels, with one third of those facing 100-year levels. With the explosion of growth throughout the state, these connector highways are seeing more and more commute traffic alongside big trucks carrying produce and other commodities to market. We are facing a fatality rate that is twice that of the state system with no signs of doing anything but getting worse.
Figures that compare monies available versus lane miles maintained show counties have only $8,748 per mile, cities have $22,830 per mile and the state has well over $33,646 per mile – perhaps even twice that when you include the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), federal tax revenue and the 30% of the local sales tax monies that all go to the state freeway system.
Counties must contact members of the Legislature and urge them to look at the state's transportation system in its entirety and strive toward allocating bond proceeds to all modes and systems. The county system is a critical component to a seamless statewide transportation system for the traveling public, whether by vehicle or transit, for commerce and for farm-to-market needs. While the transportation needs in the state certainly overwhelm the amount we will be able to address through this bond package, a seamless transportation system is dependent upon the health of the entire system.
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION
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Published by
The LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN is published weekly during the State Legislative Session by the California State Association of Counties, 1100 K Street, Suite 101, Sacramento, CA 95814.
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