Caltrans plan flip flops and directs gas tax money back to Highway 99 projects
A report from the California Department of Transportation confirmed gas tax funding will be used to widen portions of Highway 99 in Madera and Tulare counties, after all.
The 2020 Interregional Transportation Improvement Program report released this week outlines about $9 million to widen Highway 99 from two to three lanes each way in Madera County and about $8 million to do the same in Tulare County. The California Transportation Commission will vote on the plan next year.
“Restoring funding for key segments of Highway 99 in the Central Valley and Highway 46 in San Luis Obispo County fulfills a commitment I made in October to collaborate with our local transportation partners to find a way forward,” California State Transportation Agency Secretary David. S. Kim said in a statement. “We have done just that and these projects will proceed.”
The gas tax dollars in question were made possible by Senate Bill 1 in 2017, and voters rejected its repeal last year.
The Highway 99 projects were removed from a Caltrans proposal in October following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to leverage pension investments for transportation projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
San Joaquin Valley outrage
The removal of the Highway 99 funding shocked and outraged San Joaquin Valley leaders and residents, who demanded a commission hearing based in Fresno to address the matter.
“This has been our lesson: We’ve got to watch out for ourselves. We have to pay attention. We have to be strongly unified with one voice and say, ‘You cant do this to us,’” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno.
But when Newsom visited Fresno and spoke with The Bee’s editorial board in early November, he called the removal of the funding “a lot of misunderstanding,” and committed to funding the Highway 99 projects.
About a week later, the Fresno commission hearing proceeded, and dozens of Valley leaders voiced opposition to the draft plan and spoke to the need for the projects. Those comments were included in the report released this week.
Despite any misunderstandings, Patterson said the removal of the funding was a direct result of the governor’s executive order.
“You came here, you said you cared and you know, I think words matter,” Patterson said about the governor’s comments. “All of the excuse-making and deflection doesn’t change the fact we had the money… and we had to fight like hell to get him to put it back.”