Proposition 6 will cut the cost of driving but it will trim funds for road and transit work
Proposition 6 in California poses as a grassroots movement to repeal recently hiked and already high gas taxes when it is something else, too: a vote against the future. It would roll back the gas tax and vehicle fees passed by state lawmakers that kicked in last November. California Senate Bill 1, as the tax measure was called, has proven adept at generating billions of dollars to improve the state's transportation infrastructure, creating a $5-billion-a-year funding stream for bridges, roadwork and transit. The proposition also would limit the use of remaining gas taxes to road work so that none of the funds ever go toward the state’s high-speed rail project, possibly helping to kill it. The high-speed rail project has so far been paid for mostly via a mix of state bonds and federal funds.
Behind the proposition is the idea that most gas-tax money is siphoned off to high-paid government employees and that Californians in their cars are better off than Californians with a regionally planned mass transportation infrastructure, and drivers shouldn’t have to pay for one. The proposition’s advocates claim the state’s department of transportation has 3,700 employees not assigned to specific projects. That in their opinion suggests that Caltrans is a bloated and ineffective bureaucracy.