Last week, the California Assembly’s Committee on Natural Resources rejected a proposal that could have streamlined road repairs and maintenance. As has been consistently observed, Sacramento has resisted a commonsense approach to transportation policy, prioritizing tax increases, red-tape and bizarre projects like high-speed rail while the state’s infrastructure continues to deteriorate.
Assembly Bill 1569, authored by Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga, simply proposed exempting the inspection, maintenance, repair and removal of existing transportation infrastructure from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
Supported by the county of San Bernardino, the Southern California Association of Governments, the California Transportation Commission and the California Chamber of Commerce, the bill was voted down 5-3. Opponents, including Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Carpinteria, who chairs the committee, argued the bill would wrongly strip necessary environmental protections.
Vague talk of threats to the environment, however, served as cover for one of the more interesting set of remarks by Mr. Williams, who spun the bill as just an attempt to circumvent environmental protections while avoiding the favored solution of Sacramento Democrats. “Nice try … if you want to help, vote for a tax,” he told Mr. Steinorth.
The idea that the state’s transportation policy solutions should be restricted to raiding the pockets of California residents instead of looking for basic efficiencies seems misguided.
The Inland region, like most of the state, continues to face worsening infrastructure quality. An October 2014 report sponsored by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission identified roughly $7.6 billion in necessary maintenance costs over the next decade in the Inland region, plus millions more on bridges.
The last thing the region needs are excessive, even duplicative barriers to getting such work done. As well-intended as it might be, laws like CEQA all too often do more to hold up necessary development and infrastructure work than protect the environment.
“This Legislature is simply out of touch. While they continue to kill any effort to prioritize critical road repairs, my constituents in the Inland Empire face long commutes on deteriorating roads every day,” said Mr. Steinorth in a statement following the vote.
For the sake of our state’s infrastructure, we hope Mr. Steinorth and colleagues continue to find opportunities to clear unnecessary hurdles when possible and spend less time on pipe dreams like high-speed rail and more on modes of transportation people actually use.
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