Don’t Make a U-Turn on Fixing California’s Roads
This blog entry was originally published in the Orange County Register.
By Hasan Ikhrata
There is no tomorrow when it comes to fixing our roads, highways and bridges, which is why a misguided effort to repeal Senate Bill 1 — a historic measure to invest more than $5 billion a year in transportation improvements across the state — must itself be put to rest.
The repeal initiative, filed recently with the state attorney general, would require voter approval of all gas tax and vehicle fee increases after January 1, 2017.
If allowed, it would effectively derail billions of dollars in infrastructure investment already in the planning stages — costing California tens of thousands of jobs a year and exacerbating the growing mobility and public safety crisis that years of deferred maintenance have created.
Over the next quarter century, Southern California will need to spend $275.5 billion simply to fix and preserve the roads, bridges and transportation network we already have.