The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to begin developing possible sources of funding for the repair of 2,000 miles of road in unincorporated county areas.
Its goal is to raise the county’s Pavement Condition Index (PCI), a national street quality rating system, from 60, its lowest ever, to 70, or from ‘fair’ to ‘very good’ in five years.
That’s no small feat, though. The Department of Public Works (DPW) says that meeting that standard would take an estimated $56 million per year over the next half decade.
Traditionally, funding for road repair comes from state taxes paid on gasoline, but the county has taken a hit on its share of tax revenue because of reduced prices and demand for fuel. The average tax paid on a gallon of gas has fallen from 39.5 cents to 27.8 cents over the last three years, according to the County News Service.
And that’s why the Board, with one supervisor absent, voted 4-0 to direct county officials to identify possible funding sources and report their findings in 90 days. The item was brought forth by District 2 Supervisor Dianne Jacob and District 5 Supervisor Bill Horn.
“This is a hard pill to swallow, particularly to admit that there is a problem,” Supervisor Jacob said. “But we have a problem.”
Jacob pointed to the rising maintenance costs and the failure of the state’s gas tax to keep up with inflation as reasons why county roads have reached their current state, and said that the county can no longer count on the state for help.
Local
“If the state legislature hadn’t been stealing our money all these years we’d have more money to fix the roads, as far as I’m concerned.” Supervisor Horn said. “They come up with other ideas on how to spend our money which, by law, we’re supposed to be receiving, and then we don’t get it.”
In the meantime, Jacob plans to send a letter to Governor Jerry Brown asking him to “prioritize and approve a transportation funding solution that will address the deteriorating road conditions throughout the state.”
Jacob also asked that county staff to work with the Trump administration and local Congress representatives to push the issue.
The county’s calls for help come after its own independent efforts to neutralize the drop-off.
It reallocated $5 million from the general fund to the DPW to be spent on road maintenance and redirected a chunk of revenue from TransNet to repair streets. Last year, it used reserve dollars to start a multi-year road resurfacing program.
According to Jacob and Horn, pulling money from those sources still won’t cover the deficit in funding from the state.
