The City of Long Beach is preparing to formally oppose Proposition 6, an effort to repeal the statewide gas tax that has become a windfall for California cities looking to fix roads.
City Manager Pat West is asking the city attorney’s office to draft a resolution that the City Council will vote on prior to the Nov. 6 election. Voters will be asked whether to repeal the controversial tax that increased the base gasoline tax by 12 cents per gallon, increased the tax on diesel fuel by 20 cents per gallon and has raised registration fees on vehicles by $25-$175 depending on the model year. A $100 fee on zero-emission vehicles was also created under the bill.
The controversial ‘gas tax’ is benefiting Long Beach, but for how long?
Those funds are anticipated to generate about $52 billion over the next decade, providing funding for improvements to streets, bridges, highways and other public infrastructure projects.
Initial access to the funds has been relatively slow, but city officials estimate that in the coming years Long Beach could see an annual influx of over $10 million if the tax remains. Currently the city is in line to receive about $8 million in funding for 11 projects.
Proponents of the repeal effort have cast the tax as a cash grab by politicians, saying there are adequate funds under the previous tax structure to improve the state’s roadways.
Public Works Director Craig Beck has said that in order to adequately address that backlog the city would need to invest about $50 million per year.
The city’s current pavement management plan calls for a minimum investment of about $104.5 million annually, which would meet goals of keeping a minimum of 15 percent of streets and roads in the city rated as “excellent,” keeping the city’s pavement condition index—a score given to the overall health of city streets—above current levels and keeping the backlog from growing.
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Last year Beck presented the city’s pavement conditions to the City Council showing that the average pavement condition score to be 62, which was three points lower than the state average and below the averages for Orange (79) and Los Angeles (62) counties and the City of San Diego (72).
The $50 million figure that Beck has used in the past is the amount he said the city would have to invest in streets in order to bring its pavement conditions score up from 62 to an average of 80, or what would be considered to be the higher end of “good.”
The City Council is expected to vote to instruct the city attorney’s drafting of the resolution against Proposition 6 at its Sept. 4 meeting.