Yes on Prop 6 – write your letters now!

Knowing Enterprise Record Editor David Little will soon cut us off to one “political” letter before the November election, I’ve tried to write often about Prop 6. It looks like Rene Vercruyssen – one of the principals at Knife River Construction, the city’s sweetheart road contractor – is my opponent. The last letter he wrote was a little ridiculous, blaming all highway deaths in California on road hazards. I had to look that up – I didn’t even find road hazards listed by any of the reporting agencies. 

So I sent this letter, I hope you’ll write too.  Stand up and be counted. This might be the biggest revolution since Prop 13.

Update: What did I tell you? Do you believe that? Editor Dick Little held my letter for a full week, then announced the deadline, and ran my letter after the deadline! Gee, do you think he wants proposition 6 to pass or fail?

Write your letters folks and make them good!

Opponents of PROP 6 (Roll Back the Gas Tax) threaten highway deaths if 6 passes. A recent letter writer implies roughly 3,000 traffic deaths a year are caused by road hazards.

The California Office of Traffic Safety and the  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety report the leading causes of deadly highway accidents are speeding (29%), and alcohol or drug impairment (25%).  The OTS believes cell phone distraction “plays a role” in 80 percent of all traffic accidents in California, lethal or non-lethal.

Opponents of PROP 6 claim people are dying on the roads because Californians haven’t  raised their gas tax for years. Nonetheless we paid the ninth highest gas tax in 50 states, until the legislature rolled out SB 1 last January. Now we pay the second highest gas tax in the nation.

But last year the American Society of Civil Engineers rated California’s roads as fifth worst in the US – “the percentage of roadway in sub-optimal condition is 28.5% – the fifth highest in the nation.”

While the governor threatens us with crumbling roads,  he is not sincere about fixing them. If you look at the text of SB 1, you’ll find only about $3 billion of the projected $26 billion will be dedicated to fixing roads over the next decade. At least half of the money goes to the discretion of local municipalities – like the city of Chico, who just spent $368,000 in Comcast franchise fees, added on to our Comcast bills for the use of roads and infrastructure, to remodel city chambers. 

Vote Yes on PROP 6, Roll Back the Gas Tax.

Tags: Roll Back the Gas Tax