California motorists who filled their cars’ gas tanks Wednesday paid an extra 12 cents a gallon, thanks to a multibillion-dollar package of improvements to highways, streets and other transportation facilities enacted by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown this year.
The package, which also includes some extra automotive fees, is expected to raise more than $5 billion a year for transportation projects, most of which are aimed at catching up on long-delayed maintenance work.
That’s one of the tricky aspects of the situation. To build public support, backers of the package hinted—but did not promise—that it would do something about the state’s worst-in-the-nation roadway congestion, but in fact it will do little, if anything, to relieve traffic jams.
Most of the proposed improvements won’t be obvious, like expanding a freeway would be, and motorists may wonder whether they are getting something tangible for the extra money they are paying.
That’s not just a theoretical worry, because initial polling indicates that the new gas taxes are not popular, and there are a couple of efforts underway to repeal them via a ballot measure.
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