Los Angeles Cannot Find Funds in Its $7-Plus Billion Budget to Care for Roads

If we need the government to
pave the roads, then how come government can’t actually seem to
pave the roads?

It’s a question to ask a lot in California, where citizens pay
significant amounts of taxes, and yet the roads are often
disasters. On the state level, the Reason Foundation notes, California
spends more per mile than the national average for its highway
system, yet ranks near the bottom of the list for road
conditions.

On the local level, residents may see the same problems. Los
Angles has high state and local taxes (sales tax in the city is
9
percent) and yet more than a third of the streets in the city’s
streets are get failing grades for road repair (the Los Angeles
Times has an interactive map here).

What’s the solution to the problem? Not shifting resources and
rethinking priorities, obviously. Los Angeles just needs
more taxes! From the Los Angeles Times:

One year after Los Angeles voters rejected a sales tax increase,
the City Council is looking at trying again — this time by tying
the money to the repair of the city’s deteriorating network of
streets.

Two high-level City Hall policy advisors recommended Tuesday
that lawmakers place a half-cent tax hike on the November ballot
that would generate $4.5 billion over 15 years. The proceeds, they
said, would pay to fix the most severely damaged roads and
sidewalks.

Passage of a tax could add momentum to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s
“back to basics” campaign, which focuses on upgrading basic
services. The proposal also could help city leaders resolve a
potentially costly disability rights lawsuit filed by wheelchair
users who say buckled sidewalks block their access.

That last tax that failed required a simple majority. This one
would require a two-thirds majority to pass, so to say its chances
are as rough as pushing a stalled car up one of the city’s
pothole-covered hills is an apt if rather labored simile. Why
should anybody trust the city would spend its current revenue for
road repairs when it’s not currently spending its revenue for road
repairs?

Jack Humphreville, who writes about L.A.’s budget for the
website CityWatch, said city elected officials have used money that
should have gone to road repairs to fund excessive employee
salaries and benefits. “They were grossly negligent over the last
two decades in maintaining our infrastructure,” Humphreville
said.

Gary Toebben, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of
Commerce, said his organization is concerned about the burden a new
tax could place on businesses and consumers. Toebben said he also
wanted to know whether the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
would pursue a separate sales-tax hike for transit services in
2016. “If you keep adding taxes, eventually you reach a point where
people say that’s just too much,” he said.

And let’s not forget, the city encouraged voters to pass a
referendum that caps the number of legal medical marijuana shops in
town and is planning to
shut hundreds of potential taxpaying businesses down.