State budget crisis may gut 101 funds

Further widening of Highway 101 in Sonoma County is at risk of being delayed if Democratic and GOP lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agree to raid gasoline taxes to tackle the state's budget crisis.

County officials reacted with concern Friday to a proposal to suspend Proposition 42, passed by voters in March 2002, which earmarks $1.4 billion in gas-tax revenue over the next fiscal year for local and state transportation projects.

For Sonoma County, that is $82.3 million toward the more than $300 million widening of Highway 101 from Santa Rosa to Windsor and from Santa Rosa to Petaluma.

"If they suspend it, the whole fiscal year is shot. You don't get the money until the summer of the next year, or whenever they manage to pass the budget next year," said Suzanne Smith, executive director of the county Transportation Authority.

Delaying the highway projects runs the risk of the construction costs escalating, said Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Kerns of Petaluma.

"It makes sense to use the money now to get these projects done . . . this is not the way to try to balance the budget," Kerns said.

Schwarzenegger said Thursday that legislative leaders meeting behind closed doors in Sacramento are looking at money set aside for transportation and local governments as a way to plug a $15.2 billion deficit in the 2008-2009 budget.

But Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, said the plan came from Republican lawmakers and doesn't have any support among Democrats.

"We have had six to seven months of budget discussions in the Democratic caucus, and this has never come up," Evans said.

"I am real concerned about this, and I honestly don't see it passing in Sacramento. I think the voters are tired of us borrowing from other funds, and voters are clear they want these projects to go forward," she said.

The current highway widening project in downtown Santa Rosa, scheduled to be completed next spring, would not be affected.

Much of the construction money for Sonoma County's widening projects is from Measure M, the quarter-cent sales tax that county voters passed in November 2004 to fund local transportation projects. It qualifies the county as a "self-help" county using local funds to leverage state and federal funds.

Proposition 42 would provide $6.5 million toward a $120 million project to widen the freeway from Steele Lane in Santa Rosa to Windsor River Road in Windsor.

That widening project went out to bid last Monday. Construction was expected to start this fall and finish in 2010.

"Even if we get good bids, and the trends are good that there will be low bids, we couldn't award the project," Smith said.

Proposition 42 also includes $26.4 million for the $85 million widening of Highway 101 from Santa Rosa to Rohnert Park and replacement of the Wilfred Avenue overpass, and $49.4 million toward the $120 million widening of the highway from Rohnert Park to Petaluma.

Construction on both of those projects is scheduled to start next spring and be completed in 2011.

"It certainly sends local voters the wrong message," Evans said, "if you vote in a tax to help yourself and the state is going to raid the pot used to match your funds. The state should help locals help themselves, not make it harder."

You can reach Staff Writer

Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.