Mayor Garcia's letter told the chairs of the state Senate and Assembly Transportation Committees that "Long Beach voters have made it apparent that investments to State and local infrastructure are long overdue. The Long Beach electorate voted to adopt a new 1% local sales tax in June 2016 to fund improvements to transportation, parks, and public safety; adoption of SB 1/AB 1 would be consistent with this interest."

(The June LB sales tax increase ["Measure A"] received less than 2/3 voter support citywide, failed passage in the 5th Council district but passed on a majority vote citywide after a roughly $600,000 campaign that portrayed the "blank check" sales tax increase as mainly for police, fire and infrastructure. Today, LB taxpayers remain without nearly 200 police officers, no fire engine at ELB station 17 and no second engine for downtown density at station 1 despite the highest sales tax rate among all California cities tied with only a few others locally.)

The SB 1 gasoline tax increase, enacted in April 2017 by Sacramento Democrats wielding 2/3 legislative majorities, took effect in November 2017 and has raised the pump price of gasoline by roughly 30 cents per gallon. SB 1 is currently the subject of a statewide petition-initiated ballot drive to rescind the measure.

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Under LB's City Charter, the City Council, not the Mayor (who has no vote) sets City policy. SB1/AB1 were introduced in December 2016 as the first bills of the 2017 legislative year. In January 2017, the LB City Council's "State Legislation Committee" (Austin, Mungo and Gonzalez) voted to recommended a 2017 "State Legislation Agenda" that recommended the following:

Support policies, legislation and grants to increase funding for system preservation and relax funding requirements that prohibit the use of existing transportation funding for rehabilitation, resurfacing and reconstruction of local streets.

Support policies and legislation to secure the maximum amount of State funding for the construction and maintenance of local roads, infrastructure, transportation projects and major corridors.

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On April 7, two weeks after Mayor Garcia sent his letter supporting SB 1, the Council approved its 2017 State Legislative Agenda.

On any Tuesday between December 2016 and April 2017, Mayor Garcia, or any Councilmember(s), could have agendized an item that would explicitly supported SB 1 [as seven of nine LB Councilmembers did in voting in Feb. 2017 to support SB 54, the "statewide sanctuary bill"] Agendizing the gasoline tax increase for Council voted approval would have required allowing public testimony pro and con, which the Mayor and Council avoided on SB 1.

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Mayor Garcia's Mar. 23 letter can be viewed in pdf form here. The text of his letter follows below:

As Mayor of the City of Long Beach, I write in strong support of SB 1/AB 1. California’s streets, roads, and highways desperately need a stable and sustainable source of State funding to ensure that this infrastructure can be rehabilitated and maintained into the future. SB 1/AB 1 propose modest revenue increases, coupled with investments from existing revenue streams, and sensible reforms for California.

While gas tax revenues have slowly, but steadily, declined over the years, the need for maintaining California’s transportation infrastructure has remained. In fact, in Long Beach, voters have made it apparent that investments to State and local infrastructure are long overdue. The Long Beach electorate voted to adopt a new 1% local sales tax in June 2016 to fund improvements to transportation, parks, and public safety; adoption of SB 1/AB 1 would be consistent with this interest.

Long Beach has 177 miles of major roads and 609 miles of local roads that support our economy. On average, this infrastructure can be rated as "fair," and at the optimum point for repair. While the City has committed local funding to an aggressive infrastructure investment plan, State funding is needed to maximize the benefits. Now is the time for California to adopt a robust transportation investment package that provides equal funding to cities and the State, for improvements to local streets and roads, and State highways, respectively.

Given these reasons, the City of Long Beach is proud to support SB 1/AB 1. Thank you for all you have done to make transportation infrastructure a priority for California and our cities.

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