From the newletter by Toni Atkins, former California state assembly Speaker of the House, currently running for the federal senate seat.
The California Road Charge Pilot is Underway
Back in July, constituents were interested in a pilot project the state is working on to test a different way to pay for road maintenance in California.
Currently, road maintenance is funded by charging a tax on gasoline. Cars are more fuel-efficient, people are buying less gas, and that's good, but it also means the gas tax is generating much less revenue to fund road maintenance.
And cars that are more fuel-efficient are on the road just as much as before, causing the same amount of wear and tear, and as the state's population grows, more cars are using the road but the gas-tax revenue isn't keeping pace.
Senate Bill 1077 (in 2014) established a technical advisory committee to design a pilot project that would test various ways to measure how Californians are using the roads.
The project, called the California Road Charge Pilot Program, launched in July. Thousands of volunteers have been recruited to test five different methods of gathering data. The project will last for nine months. After that, the technical advisory committee will issue a report that includes recommendations for how the state should switch to a road-user charge, if, in fact, the state decides to switch.
Early last year, I suggested asking all California motorists to pay about $1 per week, (in addition to the gas tax we pay at the pump which isn't getting repairs done) which would generate roughly $1.8 billion to help repair our roads. I considered that a conversation starter – a way to open the debate over how to solve a serious problem. That conversation morphed into an extraordinary session of the Legislature, called by Governor Jerry Brown last summer to run concurrently with the regular session and tasked with finding a way to raise the additional revenue needed.
The session on transportation lingers on. It lingers because a lot of money is needed, and there are hardened opinions on both sides of the political aisle about where the money should come from. Solving big problems isn't easy.
Moving to a system where road repairs are funded through a user fee rather than an outdated gas tax is an idea well worth pursuing, and I look forward to seeing the advisory committee's recommendations in the next year or two.
To learn more about the project, please visit www.californiaroadchargepilot.com
The California Road Charge Pilot is Underway
Back in July, constituents were interested in a pilot project the state is working on to test a different way to pay for road maintenance in California.
Currently, road maintenance is funded by charging a tax on gasoline. Cars are more fuel-efficient, people are buying less gas, and that's good, but it also means the gas tax is generating much less revenue to fund road maintenance.
And cars that are more fuel-efficient are on the road just as much as before, causing the same amount of wear and tear, and as the state's population grows, more cars are using the road but the gas-tax revenue isn't keeping pace.
Senate Bill 1077 (in 2014) established a technical advisory committee to design a pilot project that would test various ways to measure how Californians are using the roads.
The project, called the California Road Charge Pilot Program, launched in July. Thousands of volunteers have been recruited to test five different methods of gathering data. The project will last for nine months. After that, the technical advisory committee will issue a report that includes recommendations for how the state should switch to a road-user charge, if, in fact, the state decides to switch.
Early last year, I suggested asking all California motorists to pay about $1 per week, (in addition to the gas tax we pay at the pump which isn't getting repairs done) which would generate roughly $1.8 billion to help repair our roads. I considered that a conversation starter – a way to open the debate over how to solve a serious problem. That conversation morphed into an extraordinary session of the Legislature, called by Governor Jerry Brown last summer to run concurrently with the regular session and tasked with finding a way to raise the additional revenue needed.
The session on transportation lingers on. It lingers because a lot of money is needed, and there are hardened opinions on both sides of the political aisle about where the money should come from. Solving big problems isn't easy.
Moving to a system where road repairs are funded through a user fee rather than an outdated gas tax is an idea well worth pursuing, and I look forward to seeing the advisory committee's recommendations in the next year or two.
To learn more about the project, please visit www.californiaroadchargepilot.com
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