Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
In Tuesday’s Bulletin, you printed a letter from Ed Fichtner who wants to repeal the state gas tax. Mr. Fichtner’s opinion is that the gas tax is a fraud and that the state will not use the funds to fix our roads and bridges, but will instead “play games moving it around for their pet projects”.
Mr. Fichtner poses several questions in his letter. He asks, “We paid for road repair already and what happened to those funds?” There are currently over 6,500 local transportation improvement projects underway in every community in California. Those projects amount to over $5 billion annually in existing funding raised by the gas tax. All of those projects and the jobs that they provide will end immediately if Prop. 6 passes.
He also states that “The TV news said that a large number of people have died on California roads due to the poor upkeep. Are the taxpayers at fault here or is it the state?” California has over 1,600 bridges that are rated as structurally deficient and unsafe. 89% of counties have roads that are in ‘poor’ or ‘at risk’ condition. There were more than 3,600 fatalities on California roads in 2016. The California Highway Patrol recognizes that poor road conditions were a contributing factor to many of those accidents and deaths. That is why they oppose Prop. 6. So, to answer Mr. Fichtner’s question, we are all at fault if we refuse to address these obvious threats to our safety.
Mr. Fichtner also asks, “Has anyone seen an “absolute” guarantee that this new road tax will go just to road repair?” The voters passed Prop. 69 in June to prevent politicians from raiding the gas tax funds and to ensure that the money would be used only for transportation projects. According to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst “The State Constitution requires that nearly all of these new revenues be spent on transportation projects... about two thirds of the revenues are dedicated to highway and road repairs, with the remainder going to other programs such as mass transit”. Not a single dollar goes into the state’s general fund or to high speed rail.
The State of California needs to spend an estimated $130 billion over the next ten years just to restore the highways, roads and bridges to good and safe condition. Of that $635.1 million is projected to be spent in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
The California Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations throughout the state oppose Prop 6 because it would eliminate 68,000 jobs and $183 billion dollars in economic investments since thousands of road construction projects would be halted if it passes. The California Professional Firefighters, California Association of Highway Patrolmen, American Society of Civil Engineers, first responders, business organizations and local government all urge a vote of NO on Prop.6. I’ll take their word for it and vote NO on 6.
If you want more information, check out the ‘No on 6’ website at https://noprop6.com/
Stephen Breacain
Manteca
