The Seismic Retrofit Bond Act is a classic example of back room, good old boy deal making that benefits a favored bureaucratic class at the expense of all of California's taxpayers. This bond act proposes to spend $2 billion for seismic structural improvements to freeways and toll bridges in California. Toll bridges in the San Francisco bay area, the bureaucracies that control them, and certain municipalities, San Francisco in particular, are the overwhelming beneficiaries of this Act.
Toll Bridge Authorities were created by the legislature for two very specific purposes: 1) to pay the principal and interest on monies used to construct those bridges and; 2) to pay for maintenance and upkeep of those structures. Any other purpose for which these bridge toll funds are used, such as to pay for other transportation programs unrelated to the primary purposes for which the Toll Bridge Authorities were originally created, must be used as justification for not funding out of toll bridge revenues, the upkeep, maintenance and earthquake retrofitting.
The consequence of this bond act is that approximately $700 million of the $2 billion collected statewide will be used to pay for retrofitting of toll bridges in the San Francisco bay area. These Toll Bridge Authorities will continue to collect their tolls from citizens using those bridges, but will use those funds for purposes other than that for which the Toll Bridge Authorities were created.
The citizens of California will be forced to pay twice; once when they pay the toll and also when they pay other gasoline and road taxes. People in San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, the central valley and northern California will be paying approximately one-third of the total bond revenues to retrofit toll bridges in the San Francisco bay area where tolls are already being collected for that exact and specific purpose. In effect, approximately $700 million less will be available to improve other public roadways throughout the state.
The losers will be the taxpayer citizens of California and the winners will be the politicians and their bureaucratic allies in the San Francisco bay area who will be given an opportunity to squander another $700 million to reward and pay off local political patrons and special interest groups to whom they are beholden. San Francisco politicians have dominated the Legislature and diverted state funds to their special interests for the last 20 years. Although they have been thrown out of office, they attempt to arise from their political deathbeds to make one more raid on the public treasury.
We urge all of California's taxpayers to vote no on this ripoff.
BERNIE RICHTER
Assemblyman, 3rd District
BRUCE THOMPSON
Assemblyman, 66th District
GEORGE HOUSE
Assemblyman, 25th District