Washington, D.C – Today, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) announced that $750,000 in federal funds will be awarded to the California Department of Transportation under the Federal Highway Administration’s Surface Transportation System Funding Alternative Program (STSFA). These funds were awarded to further build upon the Mileage-Based Fee Pilot Program (SB 1077) that DeSaulnier established during his time in the California State Senate. This pilot program will explore alternative funding mechanisms necessary to advance the construction and maintenance of California’s roads, bridges and transit systems. This funding was authorized in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on December 4, 2015.

“Given the inability of the Highway Trust Fund to sustain needed roadway and bridge repair across the country, states are leading the way in identifying innovative funding alternatives. I am pleased California was well positioned to take advantage of this federal funding opportunity as a result of SB 1077.  Our state will be at the forefront of finding innovative ways to improve safety and reduce congestion for Bay Area commuters,” said Congressman Mark DeSaulnier.

The FAST Act established the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives Program to provide grants to states or groups of states to demonstrate user-based alternative revenue mechanisms that utilize a user fee structure to maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.

Earlier this year, Congressman DeSaulnier was a keynote speaker at the Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance’s Annual Conference, where he encouraged transportation leaders to adopt similar state policies to replace the losses in gas tax revenue.

On Thursday, August 25, 2016, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Oakley) and Senator Jim Beall (D – San Jose) introduced companion bills – ABX1 26 and SBX1 1 – in the 1st Extraordinary Session to address California’s transportation funding crisis. As mentioned in a previous article, the plan includes increases to the tax on gas by 17 cents per gallon and on diesel by 30 cents per gallon, as well as a $165 annual fee on electric vehicles.

“Over the past year, I’ve worked with my colleagues, local communities and industry experts to develop an all-inclusive plan that makes necessary improvements to our transportation system. These conversations resulted in ABX1 26,” stated Frazier. “The package that Senator Jim Beall and I put forth provides vital tools to ensure California remains economically competitive. By strengthening our trade corridors and accelerating the movement of goods, this proposal keeps business in California while simultaneously creating jobs through the advancement of crucial road maintenance and enhancement projects.”

 The joint proposal provides an additional $7.4 billion annually across California’s transportation system: highways, local streets, transit, bikes and pedestrians. The plan utilizes a portfolio approach in addressing a multitude of funding needs, ensuring that everyone benefiting from California’s transportation infrastructure contributes to its continual maintenance and improvement. Additionally, important systemic reforms are included to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of funds.

“Assemblymember Jim Frazier and I have met with scores of legislators and stakeholders to craft an equitable solution that calls for everyone who drives to pay their fair share toward repairing California’s crumbling roads, bridges and trade corridors,” said Senator Jim Beall, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “Our plan includes bipartisan recommendations to increase efficiency and accountability to taxpayers.  By choosing to repair our transportation system now, we will have smoother and safer roads, generate jobs, and also save billions of dollars in future maintenance and construction costs.’’

The breakdown of new annual funding includes $2.9 billion for state highway maintenance, $2.5 billion for the upkeep of local streets and roads, $534 million to help regions restore cuts to the State Transportation Improvement Program, $516 million for transit capital projects and operations, $900 million to enhance goods movement, $80 million for active transportation projects and up to $150 million possible through Caltrans efficiencies for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

“This new proposal demonstrates real progress in the fight to secure needed transportation funding,” stated Bob Alvarado, Executive Officer of the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council. “Many in the labor community are already supportive of these efforts and look forward to helping secure the success of a funding package so we can put people to work.”

Asked if he and Beall had considered reallocating current spending to pay for their plan instead of the tax increases, Frazier responded with the following:

“In most circumstances, transportation funding has always come from a user-pay system. The General Fund is an unsteady and unpredictable source of revenue with regular fluctuations, resulting in constant funding and defunding of state-run programs. Therefore, this is not an ideal candidate for transportation projects, which can take years to plan and complete. Imagine the disappointment of developing a project only to have it cancelled last minute and without warning because state revenues are down and other programs were considered more important.”

“The proposal I laid out in ABX1-26 fixes the current transportation funding structure while still following the guiding principle of a user-pay system. This new plan utilizes a portfolio approach to diversify the collection of funds, ensuring that everyone benefiting from California’s transportation system is contributing to its maintenance and overall improvement. Additionally, the plan fixes the gas tax’s current structure, ending the instability and uncertainty of available revenues. It does this by resetting the revenue source to where it was before being altered in 2010. It then indexes it to keep pace with inflation so we can be confident that its buying power will remain strong into the future.”

The 1st Extraordinary Session was called by the Governor in June of 2015. The bills have until November 30th to be taken up for a vote before the session expires. To see the complete text of the bill, please click here.

Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.

Bill, which offers priority registration and academic advising to students, passes key legislative hurdle

Sacramento, CA – The Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Sen. Steve Glazer’s groundbreaking legislation to smooth the way for California State University students to graduate in four years.

Senate Bill 412, establishing the “California Promise,” proposes to boost CSU’s 4-year graduation rate which, at 18.6 percent, is 25 percent lower than the national average for comparable public universities. Some CSU campuses’ four-year graduation rates hover at or below 10 percent.

Glazer’s bill was jointly-authored with Senate President Pro Tem, Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles. It now awaits further action in the Senate.

“This legislation will allow CSU students to break through the logjam that has left too many students with graduation roadblocks and high debt,” said Glazer, D-Orinda, a former CSU Trustee.

Senator de Leon said: “Since 2015, the Senate has fought for access, affordability and completion for California students in higher education. SB 412 is an important piece of this agenda. I am proud to joint-author this bill, which will help California students, particularly those from low-income families, complete college in four years.”

Under the California Promise program, CSU students would be offered priority registration and academic advising as long as they commit to completing 30 semester units each year and meet any other guidelines set by individual campuses.

Low-income, underrepresented or first-generation college students who fulfill the requirements would be guaranteed admission into California Promise programs. Qualified community college transfer students would also be guaranteed slots in the California Promise.

CSU Trustees would be required to develop and implement a California Promise program at a minimum of eight CSU campuses and at 15 CSU campuses for qualifying transfer students beginning in the 2017-18 academic year. More campuses would be added in future years.

CSU students and their families pay up to $26,000 per year in tuition, books and living expenses for every extra year in college, according to the Campaign for College Opportunity.

“We know that our CSU leadership is committed to student success,” Glazer said. “The California Promise will add to the effort, giving students the tools and setting a pathway for better results.

“This program’s success will save students and their families hundreds of millions of dollars every year,” Glazer added. “It will free up seats for new students, save the state money and get better qualified students into the workforce sooner. It is projected that we will be one million degrees short in meeting industry demand in the next ten years. This program will help us meet that need.”

Dave Miller who is challenging incumbent Assemblyman Jim Frazier in his race for re-election in the 11th Assembly District, issued a statement opposing Frazier’s proposal for an increase in the gas tax.

Following is Miller’s statement:

There are two undisputed facts that everyone should know: California has the highest Gas Prices of any state that is not an island. There are a number of reasons for this and all of them originated in our legislature.

Gas and Diesel taxes hurt the working poor more than any other group.  The working poor are more likely to commute farther for work -that alone is enough of a burden, they have to drive more.  In addition to that, increasing the Diesel tax means that it costs more to deliver goods and services.  Businesses pass along the higher delivery cost to customers in the form of higher prices.  Which means our dollars don’t go as far as they used to.

Assemblyman Frazier, the chairman of the Transportation Committee, knows this.  He just doesn’t care.  He knows that the people that will be the most affected by this are too busy trying as hard as they can to eek out a living that they don’t have the time or money to pay attention.

Knowing that, yesterday Assemblyman Frazier joined with State Senator Jim Beall, according to the LA Times, to unveil their new gas tax plan.  Here are some highlights:

• Additional 17 cent per gallon tax on gasoline.
• Additional 30 cent per gallon tax on diesel.
• $165 annual fee added to the registration fees for electric cars.

The creation of a new political bureaucracy – The Office of Transportation Inspector General. (I wonder how much of the new gas tax will have to be used to pay for that…)

Assemblyman Frazier is hoping that no one notices another key point of his tax plan.  It is designed to increase inflation annually thus triggering a higher tax on gasoline automatically.   Inflation is calculated by looking at the Consumer Price Index.  The more things cost – the higher inflation is.  So he is going to increase the costs of all goods and services by increasing the cost of fuel.  By tying his tax to inflation Assemblyman Frazier is taking his planned price increases for all goods and services -caused by his tax plan- and turning them into a self-fulfilling prophecy of ever increasing gas taxes and higher inflation.

This is not his first attempt to increase the tax on each gallon of gasoline. On January 6th of 2016 Assemblyman Frazier introduced AB-1591 which would have increased the tax on gasoline by 22.5 cents per gallon and 30 cents per gallon of diesel.  In addition to the new gas tax AB-1591 would have increased the cost of annual vehicle registration from $38 to $165 depending on your vehicle.  Like his current proposal AB-1591 would have also been tied to inflation and automatically increased annually.  AB-1591 died in committee.  But Assemblyman Frazier told the L.A. Times that he would try to push for a lame duck session to get his new bill passed.

The big issue with trying to force it though a lame duck session is that you may end up with enough legislators that lost their elections, or decided to retire, that might vote for something that their constituencies do not want since there is no political consequence.   What Assemblyman Frazier is doing here is putting politics before people.

As many of you know Jim has skipped out on 2 scheduled debates with me.  The most recent he had a fellow democrat try to come to his aide by saying that he was stuck in a committee hearing.  When the truth is that he had an hour and 45 minutes after the conclusion of his meeting to get just 35 miles.  Even if he hadn’t left the capitol for 30 minutes after his hearing AND got caught in traffic, and hit every red light, he still would have been able to make it to the debate.

So, I have issued a challenge, anytime, anywhere. I will debate Mr. Frazier anytime, anywhere. But, he is too scared to debate a serious contender that knows the Assemblyman’s record better than the Assemblyman himself does.

Frazier is seeking his third term in the Assembly. The 11th District includes all of Antioch. For more information about Miller, visit his website at www.electdavemiller.com. The election is on Tuesday, November 8.

By Allen Payton

According to an article in the L.A. Times, State Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) and State Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose) presented a $7.4-billion transportation plan late Wednesday, which includes an increase of 17 cents per gallon in the state gas tax, to help pay for it. The plan would also increase the tax on diesel by 30 cents per gallon and introduce a $165 annual fee on electric cars.

The Frazier-Beall plan also includes streamlining the environmental process for repairing existing transportation infrastructure and a new Office of Transportation inspector general to oversee spending.

The pair’s proposal is in response to a report about the condition of California’s roads, highways and bridges, also released on Wednesday. See the entire report, here – TRIP_Report_August_2016

Frazier issued the following statement on Thursday:

Yesterday, The Road Information Program (TRIP) released a report detailing the current status of California’s transportation system, confirming Assemblymember Frazier’s (D – Oakley) claims that road conditions will continue to worsen without passing a transportation funding plan.

“The information released in yesterday’s report further demonstrates the desperate need to repair California’s transportation system,” stated Frazier. “This cannot be accomplished without fixing the current, outdated funding structure.”

The report details the existing condition of California’s transportation infrastructure and examines future mobility needs with an increase in population and goods movement. Included in the study is the vital role our roads, highways and bridges have on economic growth and overall quality of life. The report uncovered that deteriorating roads cost Californians $56.6 billion annually in the form of additional vehicle operating costs, congestion-related delays and traffic crashes.

“I’ve spent the past year calling for a comprehensive funding fix. If we fail to act on this now, the condition of our roads will continue on this downward trajectory,” stated Frazier. “Our residents deserve a transportation system that works for all Californians. It’s time that the Legislature comes together to pass a thoughtful, sustainable plan. To that end, I’ve worked with Senator Beall to put forth a plan that will address these concerns.”

The report concluded that addressing these significant transportation issues is essential for California to remain competitive and accommodate the demands of a modern society.

Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.

Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Oakley) issued the following statement after the Joint Legislative Audit Committee approved a request by a coalition of Delta representatives to take a closer look at the funding of the Delta tunnels project, now known as the California WaterFix:

“Since being elected to the Assembly, I have continuously fought against any new water conveyance project in the Delta,” Fraizer stated. “Major concerns have been raised regarding a secure financial plan with both the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and the California WaterFix/EcoRestore.

“As the representative and a long-time citizen of Assembly District 11, known as ‘The Heart of the Delta,’ this issue has always been a priority. As chair of the Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, I held the first legislative oversight hearing on the BDCP’s funding structure, allowing the public and Legislature a forum to voice concerns and identify shortfalls. I’ve also carried legislation to address these worries; such as AB 2583, which would have resolved many of the concerns raised in the recently approved audit request.

“Little by little, each of these attempts has resulted in increased awareness and understanding of this critical issue. I am pleased that my colleagues on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee understood the importance of taking a closer look at these uncertainties and I look forward to reviewing the results.”