AnonymousSource: Office of Rep. Salud Carbajal
Today, Representative Carbajal announced the first round of investments to repair California bridges under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Law he helped pass. Rep. Carbajal voted to deliver $4.25 billion to California to fix bridges this year, as part of a total $27.5 billion investment in bridge repair over the next five years.
According to the Department of Transportation, there are 52 bridges in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county that are in poor condition. Fixing these bridges will create much needed jobs, connect our communities, and help revitalize the economy.
“We promised to make long overdue investments in our dilapidated infrastructure and I am proud to say we delivered. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest investment our nation has ever made to repair our bridges, which will help Central Coast residents get to school and work, create good-paying jobs, connect communities, and drive commerce,” said Rep. Carbajal. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once in a generation investment that will improve the lives of everyone on the Central Coast. I’m proud to have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this bill across the finish line.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also includes a separate program designed to support larger bridges through a competitive grant program. Details on that program will be announced at a later date.
For more information on the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Formula Program funding to states, click here.
It didn’t get “mysteriously transferred” to a “slush fund,” gas tax revenues meant for infrastructure were diverted to fund law enforcement. Do you want to take a wild guess at which politicians mostly supported that move? Are you even bothering to comment on reality or just making things up?
Tax funds running up and down our govt bureaucracies is a problem.
I do indeed strongly support govt spending on the public good (including but not limited to infrastructure, schools, parks, health care, public health). BUT we all lose when states have to apply/beg for tax funds back from the feds… counties beg for grant funds from the state… cities from the state and the county… and on and on. In short, more taxes and government need to be local, and it shouldn’t be celebrated as an “achievement” when a state or a city gets some of its taxpayers own money back from a layer of government more removed from the people.
Good point Transparent. What made America unique and resilient over the centuries were communities empowered to take care of themselves, govern themselves, with the higher levels of government supporting those efforts. Unfortunately it’s been inverted these days with the local levels of government being controlled by the higher levels of government. The downside of this was blatantly apparent throughout the pandemic, blanket edicts from a far away capital trying to make rules for tens of millions of people with no nuance to how drastically different one community can be from another. The right response for San Francisco isn’t the best response for Santa Barbara, or a rural central valley community. The decision making power of each community to do what’s best for their unique circumstances were taken away from them, forced to follow the edicts of politicians and bureaucrats hundreds of miles away whose priority is not what best for their individual community.
State gas taxes and registrations don’t come close to covering highway maintenance and construction, so the Feds have always stepped in. If you have a problem with that take it up with President Eisenhower. Last time I checked about 88% of gas & diesel taxes go to maintain highways and streets, the rest to state parks, trade corridors, and a fraction of a percentage to admin costs. To illustrate how gas taxes don’t cover the cost, consider this: when the tax was started in the mid-1920’s it was 2 cents a gallon (inflation adjusted: about 33 cents). Now it’s about double that at 67 cents. Is our transportation infrastructure double what it was then in terms of cost? No, probably over 100x that. So yeah, you can say political slogans like “the gas taxes are the highest in the nation!” But if you look at the fundamentals, the revenue in every state will never cover the ultimate costs, especially here in CA with the most highway mileage in the country after Texas (which is 1st due to its size).
Your username hardly implies you’re moderate, and you also implied incorrectly that the disaster was the result of corrupt, secret budgetary wizardry. Was I so mistaken in taking issue with your anonymous internet comment? Lol. The Pennsylvania infrastructure funding redirection was done in an open bipartisan session of a state legislature. The good old short term benefits for long term loss that both parties are so fond of.
A-164: What unique circumstances are you referring to? Wear a mask when inside near others and you should get vaxxed, that’s the gist of it now. If anything, rural areas should be more cautious because on average they live farther from medical care, and even then their hospitals don’t have the resources of urban hospitals. In hindsight, the state govt. was over-cautious with indoor dining bans but the best option at the time was making sacrifices to save lives based on the best-available science. In our two-party asylum, the alternative was a leader who deferred to his lieutenant to tell people to voluntarily stay indoors for 15 days while he played golf and put his son-in-law in charge of logistics.
This is a good thing. Hopefully this earmarked money doesn’t get mysteriously transferred into some other slush fund like what happened in Pennsylvania.