Many Republicans were not supportive of the California Democrats’ transportation package announced Tuesday, including Senator Scott Wilk.
The plan, authored by Governor Jerry Brown, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León, would raise state transportation taxes and fees by more than $5 billion a year.
“More taxes are not the answer to our transportation problems,” Wilk said in a statement. “Californians already pay the highest taxes in the nation toward our roads, but Democrats in the legislature have redirected, repurposed and redistributed our money to pork-barrel projects and gubernatorial pipe-dreams like high speed rail rather than taking action on our failing roads.”
Instead, Republican legislators have a plan to repurpose $6 billion to road maintenance and construction without raising taxes, Wilk said.
The 21st Senate District has nearly 200,000 daily commuters who would be impacted by the tax increases, according to Wilk.
“I will continue to fight to protect the pocketbooks of my constituents and to fight attempts to raise their taxes,” he said. “We need reforms, not another money grab.”
Assembly and Senate Republicans also released a joint statement opposing the plan, saying it would be the largest gas tax increase in California’s history. The plan urged the legislature to reject the Democrats’ plan in favor of the Republicans’ own plan.
“The transportation proposal announced by the Capitol Democrats is a costly and burdensome plan that forces ordinary Californians to bail out Sacramento for years of neglecting our roads,” the Republicans’ statement said.
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