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				Yolo,Placer could end up with nothing

                     By Emily Bazar
                     Bee Capitol Bureau
                     (Published June 15, 2000)

                     With a vote on the new $100.8 billionstate budget
set for today,politicians
                     across the state are assailing the governor's plan
to dole out billions of dollars
                     for transportation projects intended to ease
congestion.

                     Under Gov. Gray Davis' proposal, about $4.8 billion
in surplus budget funds
                     would go to specific projects in 25 primarily urban
counties over five years,
                     while 33 counties would receive nothing.

                     The lion's share of the money has been earmarked
for Sacramento, Los
                     Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco counties, all
of which have large
                     populations and notorious traffic jams.

                     Counties such as Yolo and Placer -- which under the
traditional transportation
                     funding formula would receive $29 million and $32
million respectively -- get
                     nothing under the governor's new plan, even though
local leaders say they
                     could use the money badly.

                     "We're a fast-growing county, and we have many
needs that the urban areas
                     getting the funds also have," said Tim
Hackworth,acting director of Public
                     Works for Placer County. "We get a little bit
short-changed in this formula."

                     Many legislators are opposed to the governor's
plan, and some, including
                     Assemblyman Rico Oller, R-San Andreas, are calling
on colleagues to
                     oppose it. But time is short. The constitutional
deadline for legislative approval
                     of a budget is midnight tonight. "Like most other
Republicans, I continue to be
                     very concerned about the transportation proposal
that's out there," said Sen.
                     Charles Poochigian of Fresno, who is chairman of
the Senate Republican
                     Caucus. "There is going to continue to be great
dissatisfaction with the new
                     methodology chosen for the distribution of
transportation dollars."

                     In California, money for new transportation
projects generally is allocated at a
                     regional level, with local politicians coming
together to prioritize projects and
                     recommend funding decisions. Money for these
projects comes from the
                     state's transportation account and is spread among
all counties based on
                     population and other factors.

                     But the money in the governor's plan is funding
over and above that provided
                     in the state transportation account. Davis has
opted to tap general fund dollars
                     for these projects because there's a large budget
surplus.

                     Though he could have allocated the new money
according to the traditional
                     regional transportation funding mechanism, he said
he decided instead to focus
                     on projects in certain counties to ease congestion.

                     In the proposal, for instance, $120 million would
go toward Sacramento
                     Regional Transit light rail expansions or
improvements.

                     The non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office
issued a report on the proposal,
                     however, that suggests its distribution isn't
equitable and that projects weren't
                     selected based on objective criteria.

                     The way the governor chose the projects "seemed to
be kind of ad hoc in
                     nature," said Rebecca Long,fiscal and policy
analyst for the LAO. "We
                     haven't seen any objective criteria to demonstrate
that the projects included in
                     the plan will meet their intended goals."

                     More recently, Davis added a $30 million project to
his proposal that would
                     fund the reconstruction of the Apache Trail
Interchange near Banning, which
                     leads to the Morongo Band of Mission Indians'
casino.

                     Davis' choice of projects has raised the ire of
legislators such as Oller, who
                     represents six rural counties -- Alpine, Amador,
Calaveras, El Dorado, Mono
                     and Placer. None of them would receive money under
the Davis plan.

                     Though he has embarked on a lobbying campaign
against the proposal, a joint
                     conference committee looking into the budget's
transportation package has
                     already indicated its willingness to go along with
the governor's plan.

                     "That is an unconscionable abuse of power and abuse
of the purse strings,"
                     Oller said. "It is cheating the people in rural
California in favor of people in
                     urban California."

                     In Placer County, officials say they have
transportation projects that deserve
                     funding, such as the widening of Highway 65 between
Roseville and Lincoln.

                     Though not as extreme as Bay Area or Southern
California traffic jams,
                     Hackworth said Placer County also must deal with
congestion on its
                     roadways.

                     So does Yolo County, according to Supervisor Tom
Stallard.In addition to a
                     backlog of road and bridge repairs, the county's
Jefferson Boulevard in West
                     Sacramento needs widening and fixing, among other
pressing projects.

                     "We are one California and all of us have to be
concerned about the welfare
                     of all of us," Stallard said. 

                     Steven A. Capps of The Bee Capitol Bureau
contributed to this report.