It’s never easy to raise taxes or fees for anything, even with the promise they’ll make things better in the future.
That especially goes for driving in Southern California — and more so during these days of high inflation and gas prices.
That’s why the proposal for a “road usage charge” to help finance a $160 billion transit-focused transportation system for the San Diego region has become a political third rail.
Often called a mileage or congestion fee, the levy was a central element to the plan by the San Diego Association of Government not only to raise revenue, but to motivate people to use pubic transportation instead of their cars to reduce climate-warming emissions.
The road charge has become a political liability for elected officials who have backed the plan’s overall transportation goals, Democrats in particular. SANDAG is a regional planning agency with a board made up of elected officials from the county of San Diego and its 18 cities.
Mayors Todd Gloria of San Diego and Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas voted for the original plan when it was approved by the board in December, but made clear last week they weren’t happy the road charge was still in it. The board has directed SANDAG Executive Director Hasan Ikhrata and his staff to excise the fee multiple times and did so again Friday.
This is the latest development that raises questions about whether the ambitious transportation plan largely designed by Ikhrata is headed toward a dead end before it gets off the ground — and whether the executive director’s sometimes uneasy relationship with the board is getting shakier.
The transportation plan includes high-speed trains, expanded trolley service, extensive tunneling, a network of stations connecting all forms of ground transportation, and a transit link to the airport. The system overhaul is supposed to be completed by 2050.
But proponents haven’t been able to get past square one in of funding. The first of three half-cent sales tax increases for the plan was expected to go before voters in November, but a coalition of labor and environmental groups in June failed to gather enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. Backers say they are regrouping for the 2024 election.
Now the road charge finally seems dead.
Beyond financing, there’s an overarching question about whether Ikhrata’s vision is the right one for the region’s future transportation needs.
The plan had vocal critics from the beginning, particularly from Republican elected officials on the SANDAG board who mostly represent cities north and east of San Diego’s urban core. Those board and others said the plan will shift resources away from roads and highways to transit, to the detriment of their constituents who commute by automobile.
Along with other like-minded politicians, they have seized on the road charge. Laura Lothian, a conservative who had run three times for the City Council in Democratic La Mesa, won a special election in November by largely focusing on the road charge. Lothian, who is up for election for a full term this November, filled the council seat vacated by Democrat Akilah Weber, who had been elected to the Assembly.
In Escondido, a council majority removed Mayor Paul McNamara from the SANDAG board after he ed the transportation plan.
Blakespear, the SANDAG board chair who is running for the state Senate, has faced criticism for ing the plan and the road charge. Gloria isn’t up for re-election until 2024, but has heard plenty of complaints about the fee.
San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, a Republican SANDAG board member who is facing re-election, has been an outspoken opponent of the road charge.
SANDAG board opposed to the plan sent a letter in July alerting the California Air Resources Board that the fee was to be taken out of the transportation plan. Jennifer Gress, a division chief at CARB, expressed “disappointment” in an August letter to Ikhrata, saying removal of the road charge would jeopardize the plan’s greenhouse gas reduction strategy.
“We at CARB are hard pressed to see how SANDAG could meet the targets without it,” Gress wrote. “Not only does this undermine achievement of the State’s air quality and climate goals, having a non-compliant plan threatens the region’s ability to secure State funding for priority transportation projects that residents and businesses in the region are counting on.”
CARB approval of the plan is necessary. Ikhrata replied that the road charge was still in the proposal and would be reconsidered in the scheduled 2025 update of the plan. In August, CARB approved the plan.
The SANDAG board wants the fee amended out of the plan sooner. A new environmental review must be conducted along with finding a different avenue to meet the state’s requirements without the road charge.
“What it really amounts to is a complete update of the regional plan because the road-usage charge relates to so many things,” Coleen Clementson, deputy chief executive officer at SANDAG said in June. “…. You can’t just pull something like that out because it impacts everything.”
Removing the fee, which was to go into effect in 2030, would mean a loss of $14 billion to the transportation plan funding scheme. Officials said they likely could replace that money with new vehicle registration or parking fees, according to Joshua Emerson Smith of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Ikhrata said the move could also limit the agency’s ability to discourage driving, a key strategy for curbing tailpipe emissions and limiting traffic congestion.
“From the financial standpoint, I’m not as worried as from the behavioral standpoint,” Ikhrata said, according to Smith.
That may be sound policy to reduce emissions, but it feeds into the opposition narrative that car drivers are being punished to further transit goals.
In reiterating his opposition Friday, Gloria reflected on the inadequacy of the county’s existing transportation system.
“I cannot the concept of charging people to drive when we don’t have viable transit or other alternatives to offer those who are already struggling with high rents, high utility rates and everything else,” the mayor said.
Maybe the economic burdens will ease somewhere down the line, but it’s hard to imagine the road charge getting any more popular, election year or not.
Right now, the plan on the table for a viable future transportation system seems to be going off the rails.
