The intersection of 15th Street and Peterson Avenue would be one of the city’s roads repaired if Long Beach is approved to receive state funding from a gas tax that went into effect last year. Image taken from Google Maps, captured January 2018.
Nearly six miles of Long Beach roads could soon be the beneficiaries of state gas-tax funded repairs after the city council adopted a resolution Tuesday night that outlined required information necessary to receive the state funding.
Senate Bill 1, more commonly referred to as the gas tax, went into effect April 2017 after the state legislature forwarded it to Gov. Jerry Brown who signed it into law. SB-1 added a 12-cent tax per gallon on fuel purchases and 20 cents per gallon to diesel purchases in the state and increased the vehicle registration fees for California drivers.
The new revenue stream is intended to go toward repairing local roads and highway systems, something the city is hoping to benefit from by applying for $8 million in SB-1 funding. Before applying for the funding the city was required to identify which streets would be improved by the funding, how long the new road life would be useful for and the anticipated year of construction.
Streets outlined in the resolution are scattered throughout the city with some of the largest lengths of improvement to occur in Central Long Beach on 15th Street between Orange and Obispo avenues (1.2 miles) with a smaller 0.2 mile section of 15th Street between Lewis and Alamitos avenues also set for repairs.
Other half-mile street segments in the city’s north, east and southeast portions were identified in the resolution which drew universal support from the council.
“Pave, baby, pave,” said Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, whose district would receive a half-mile improvement to Artesia Boulevard between Cherry Avenue and Paramount Street.
The improvements could hit a snag though as SB-1 is facing fierce opposition from conservative voters who were enraged when Sacramento lawmakers crafted the tax increase. An effort to place a repeal vote on the November ballot turned in hundreds of thousands of signatures in late April which leaves future funding from SB-1, like the $8 million Long Beach’s resolution is targeting, in limbo.
“If in fact the repeal did go forward we would likely not receive the full, or any of the $8 million from the information that we have currently,” Director of Public Works Craig Beck said. “Therefore the streets listed before you would not have the funding to be repaved and we would have to identify future and other sources of revenue to be able to achieve the items that you have listed before you.”
If the gas-tax repeal fails to make it to the ballot or is voted down by Californians in November construction on the identified segments of streets could start in 2019.