Gray Davis was our boring, coin-operated governor. We ditched him in favor of a hyperthyroid celebrity who drives a Hummer. Actually, that’s not fair. Our new governator is personally responsible for Hummers being offered as civilian vehicles (with optional gun mounts). So what does he know about public transportation? Not enough to see any value in continuing to fund it.
By Guy Span, S.D.
Published: February, 2004
Gray Davis was our boring, coin-operated governor. We ditched him in favor of a hyperthyroid celebrity who drives a Hummer. Actually, that’s not fair. Our new governator is personally responsible for Hummers being offered as civilian vehicles (with optional gun mounts). So what does he know about public transportation? Not enough to see any value in continuing to fund it.
The draft budget guts virtually every transit project in the pipeline. In broad terms, the budget proposes to take back some $189 million in funds already spent (but not yet reimbursed) for the boring governor’s Transportation Congestion Relief Fund (TCRF). Then it proposes to repeal the statutory designation of the fund, effectively eliminating it and a whole host of projects that, according to the celebrity governor, “were selected outside the normal transportation planning process...”
The suddenly orphaned projects, according to the budget, could then be funded in competition with the projects already approved by the normal planning process or “other funding sources” could be used. In short, if any TCRF project is that important, then the planners can scrub some other project in favor of it. Since there are no “other funding sources,” then most of the projects will languish.
In addition, the celebrity governor takes a shot a Proposition 42, passed by the voters in 2002. Prop 42 permanently earmarks a portion of California’s sales tax on gasoline for transit and transportation. The draft budget proposes to completely suspend this transfer, which effectively takes another $1.1 billion dollars out of the system. However, some of the funds were to go to the TCRF, so the full impact is less.
Finally, the Hummer-driving celebrity governor takes a shot at rail. Specifically, Chapter 697 that authorizes the High-Speed Rail Authority to put a general obligation bond measure before the voters in March 2004. The populist governator has no desire to hear if the voters might like this investment or not. He knows that it is a bad idea. Thus, the budget proposes to repeal Chapter 697.
In this fashion, a host of projects including ferries, express buses, carpool lanes, seismic retrofit, rail, service expansion, and the like all come under the knife. This proposed budget clearly demonstrates the new administration’s commitment to transportation by private automobile. It also demonstrates the importance of Regional Measure 2 (the $1 toll increase on local bridges), as this suddenly becomes the ONLY source of funds to improve Bay Area’s transit infrastructure.
