Tag: Ling Ling Chang

The venerable your-tax-dollars-at-work road sign, government’s feeble attempt to counter fire-breathing antitax crusaders and reassure motorists that their money is going to good use, has become cliche and commonplace — visual roadside litter that most of us hardly notice. Not so one Southern California lawmaker. They don’t recount the entire sordid history of California transportation spending, which is also a lot to ask of a sign. The essence of the Los Angeles County Republican’s complaint appears to be that the signs are true. And that, in turn, will threaten Republicans’ campaign to repeal the tax increase, which relies on the notion that the transportation funding measure is actually a plot to rob taxpayers of their hard-earned money for no particular reason. He voted to raise gas taxes. The GOP doesn’t have a candidate in California’s U.S. Senate race and, if polls don’t change dramatically, is facing a shellacking in the gubernatorial contest. Most of the $5 billion a year for roads, bridges, mass transit and other transportation projects being raised by last year’s gas tax and vehicle fee increases is to repair infrastructure that Californians are already using. But SB1 attempted to address that by including oversight measures and spending restrictions. In a mirror image of the GOP distortion, it says the measure “Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes.” The parties, in other words, are having an absurd argument over whether SB1 raises taxes or fixes roads.