January 11, 2006

Governor's focus a plus
for state's roadways

Competing measures, approval in Legislature next battle

 

By Jason Probst

With a massive slate of improvements aimed at upgrading the state's aging transportation infrastructure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State address last week sets the bar high with an ambitious directive.

However, while virtually everyone agrees the state's freeway and mass transit system can use all the help they can get, the challenge is in finding the $107 billion proposed for the upgrades.

And the ensuing battle over financing those improvements will likely be an ongoing issue in the Legislature this spring and beyond as the governor moves to float the first phase - the first of two $6 billion dollar bond proposals - possibly as soon as this June's ballot.

So far, the list of proposed improvements gives Placer County a $7.2 million for a park-and-ride facility at Taylor Road, as well as a half-million upgrade to the Capitol Corridor passenger train rail between Roseville and Sacramento.

Those upgrades are pretty small compared to the list of monies designed on a working list being circulated of projects in other areas, especially Sacramento, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

But the overall effort to reduce traffic is significant and can still help locally by reducing traffic, said Celia McAdam, executive director of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency.

"The governor is taking transportation and infrastructure seriously," McAdam said. "Certainly, this is something we in Placer County have been jumping up and down about for years."

The two primary challenges for the area are widening Interstate 80 as it goes from Sacramento into Placer County, narrowing to three lanes and creating a bottleneck (see related story), and moving along with the Highway 65 bypass, re-routing it around Lincoln.

"I-80 (widening) in Placer was not on the list, but this is a bond issue, and they've got to get the votes," McAdam said. "Those votes are in Los Angeles, Southern California and the Bay Area."

McAdam said one key bright spot in the governor's address is it may signify an end to Legislature raids on state transportation funding, which has occurred in three of the last four fiscal years.

"Instead of taking that money, the governor is now saying, we need to plug that hole and make it permanent. That does even more for transportation," McAdam said. "It's not only having the money, it's knowing it's there. You can't start and stop these projects on a dime."

Senator Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, said he was pleased with what he believes is "an ambitious proposal for California's future."

"From my vantage point, I support many of the concepts he outlined. I think it's important to recognize that we look at the specifics," Cox said. "We need to look at projects, and how we're going to pay for them, efficiencies and effectiveness."

Cox believes that environmental regulations - which can hamstring and delay project implementations for years - may need to be looked at as the state moves to make sweeping changes to its infrastructure in the coming years.

"We're going to have to look at changes that need to be made to environmental requirements," Cox said. "The environmental process slows projects down. It costs you more money. The Republican senators will get together and talk about the proposals in detail. There will be questions that need to be resolved.

"Because the governor's proposals require Republican support, there will be things that have to be dealt with."

These include project accountability and timeliness, he added, two concerns he has about big-ticket public infrastructure projects.

Cox commended the Placer County Board of Supervisors and local officials here for being "focused on transportation."

"The city of Roseville just did a Douglas (Boulevard) ribbon cutting, and there are lots of other projects on the board," he said. "I look forward to helping them with their transportation needs.

Cox downplayed the notion that Schwarzenegger's ambitious move toward public infrastructure hurts him in the eyes of GOP leaders.

"I don't know if that has anything to do with the infrastructure requirements of Placer County," Cox said.

At least two bond measures are also expected to compete with Schwarzenegger's proposals.

Senator Deborah Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, questioned the feasibility of issuing bonds, as the entire list of improvements is estimated at $222.6 billion, of which $107 billion would be allocated for transportation.

"I'm all for dreaming big, but in order for the dream to become a reality, we have to figure out a way to pay for it," she said. "I want to see the road map for how the governor is going to pay for all of the building he wants to do.

"Investing in and rebuilding our infrastructure is critical, but bond money isn't free money. Plus, you have to remember that building the schools and the prisons is on the first step. Once they're up, you need to hire teachers and guards to operate them. Where is that money going to come from? I'm very interested in investing in our future, but we shouldn't be saddling our children and their children with tens of billions of dollars of debt because the governor doesn't want to foot the bill."