 |
 -0 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
|
Unions influence Davis budget Under the Davis budget, the state would still defer -- until possibly 2010 -- $938 million in gas tax revenues due the Transportation Investment Fund next year. But that figure is a $207 million improvement over the governor's first recommendation, and one that occurred thanks, in part, to prodding by the operating engineers and other unions that benefit from freeway construction. "We had a meeting with the governor before the May revise to inform him that when you cut transportation dollars, you lose jobs," said Tim Cremins, a lobbyist for the California-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers. "It's been a concerted effort that has involved the building-trades unions, especially the heavy-construction unions," added Jim Earp, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, a coalition of 1,700 heavy and highway construction companies and approximately 50,000 union construction workers. Transportation funding has suffered in the wake of two straight years of budget deficits, including a shortfall of almost $25 billion last year. To fill this year's estimated $34 billion hole, Davis in January declared a fiscal state of emergency giving Sacramento the right to raid gas-tax revenues otherwise reserved for highway projects by Proposition 42. The Davis administration regularly cites its record on modernizing California's highway infrastructure as better than the two previous governors, and said Davis upped transportation funding in the May revise to create jobs and stimulate the economy. "There was broad support for this -- it was both a labor and a business concern," Davis' press secretary Steve Maviglio said. The state's unemployment rate was 6.6 percent as of April, and Maviglio said local governments asked Davis to include more transportation funds in his May revise because it is good for local economies. Earp and Cremins said their lobbying efforts were not solely responsible for Davis' decision to add more money to transportation, even as he simultaneously increased by $3.6 billion his estimate of the deficit, and noted that a broad business coalition also made the pitch. But individuals familiar with the process believe organized labor, a strong Davis ally, wielded considerable influence. Every dollar spent on transportation creates an estimated five to six jobs -- or 47,500 jobs for every $1 billion spent -- most of which are union. "The labor unions were very concerned with the continued investment in infrastructure because of the jobs associated with it. And the byproduct is a better May revise than what we started with in January," said Darren Kettle, legislative director for San Bernardino Associated Governments and the Riverside County Transportation Commission. It was probably at the urging of the unions that Davis reversed himself on his original plan to suspend Proposition 42 for the 2003-04 fiscal year, Kettle said. Prop 42 was passed by voters in 2002 and mandates that gas-tax revenues, about $1.1 billion annually, be transferred out of the general fund and into a special fund used only for road projects. The administration's has previously supported the intra-government borrowing of highway funds, which has caused project delays. Still, Davis is sensitive to labor and that has been good for public transportation, Kettle explained. "It gives us one more way to get access to the governor's office," Kettle said. Both Cremins and Earp said progress has been significant but limited. Davis wanted hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation funds borrowed by the general fund to be forgiven, but that proposal is now off the table.
And Prop. 42 was only partially suspended, not to mention the $207 million in funds added to the
|
|
|
