Wrong Road: No on 74

California needs new highways and repair work on existing roads. It does not need Gov. George Deukmejian’s $1-billion transportation bond issue. Modest increases in the state gas tax and truck fees would buy the same highway construction and repair. Instead of charging all taxpayers to pay off the bonds, people who use the highways would pay for them. California should stick to its historic pay-as-you-go highway financing policy.

California collects a 9-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax as well as user fees. Together those charges will yield $1.6 billion this year for designing, building and maintaining state highways, matching federal funds for highways, financing rail-transit projects and helping cities and counties build and maintain local roads.

The proposed bond issue would shift transportation financing from gasoline taxes and user fees, at least in this instance, to bond sales. That is a dangerous precedent.

It would also be an expensive one. Assuming that these bonds will be sold at 7.5% interest, this measure would require that state general-fund money be used to pay off both the $1-billion principal and about $790 million in interest over 20 years instead of having the people who use the highways the most pay for them as plans are drawn and executed. The state legislative analyst estimates that the average payment for principal and interest would be about $90 million a year.

That sum could be far better used to help educate California’s children, care for its mentally-ill homeless or provide prenatal care to pregnant women so that infants get a decent start in life. There is no excuse for robbing these groups of needed funds simply to avoid increasing California’s gas tax.

Opponents of the highway bond measure--among them state Sens. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) and Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) and Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles)-- point out that California ranks last in the 50 states for per-capita spending on highways. Adding to the state’s indebtedness and denying other programs needed funds are not the way to correct for this lowly status. Raising the gasoline tax now, especially while gas prices are not rocketing upward, is the answer.

Californians look to their government for many services. This is not the time to restrict even more the money available for those services when there is a proven method for paying for the roads that Californians also need.

A sound way of paying for highways already exists. Let’s use it before mortgaging the future. Vote No on Proposition 74.