Gas tax hike of 17 cents per gallon part of new transportation funding plan

As reported by the Los Angeles Times:

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Two Democratic lawmakers unveiled a $7.4-billion transportation plan late Wednesday, the latest effort to break through a yearlong logjam over the state’s funding woes.

The plan, highlighted by an increase of 17 cents per gallon in the gas tax, comes from Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) and Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose) in an attempt to unify the disparate proposals the pair had previously introduced in their respective houses.

The combined plan is more than double Gov. Jerry Brown’s $3.6-billion proposal, which calls for a 6-cent gas tax hike.

“We need to be able to have a big plan to be able to be effective and catch back up,” Frazier said.

Last summer, Brown called a special session of the Legislature to highlight the $130-billion backlog in state and local road repairs, as well as the billions more in other transportation budget deficits. But lawmakers have made little progress, especially with gas tax hikes — which would require a bipartisan supermajority vote — on the table. …

Click here to read the full story