Machado: Budget cuts could spell the demise of public works

By Matt Machado

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The Stanislaus County Public Works Department maintains about 1,600 miles of county roadway and more than 250 bridges.

This includes patching, drainage pumps and basins, bridge maintenance, tree maintenance, center and edge striping, legend painting, weed abatement, shoulder maintenance, traffic signs and signal operation and maintenance. This division also provides maintenance services to county service areas and landscape and lighting districts.

During inclement weather, you will find our crews in the rain, pumping storm water from flooded roads, placing warning barricades and closing roads or removing rockslides or downed trees. We often work with emergency personnel at accident scenes, providing traffic control, cleaning up spills and removing debris. Our work directly affects the health and safety of Stanislaus residents.

Funding to provide these services comes from gas taxes. These monies are collected by the state and then distributed to local agencies. There are two types of gas tax, Highway Users Tax Account (HUTA) and Proposition 42. Together these sources make up 99 percent of the public works departments' road and bridge operation budget.

As it struggles to solve its general fund budget troubles, the state has been exploring taking money from other fund sources, such as gas tax.

Thursday, the state Budget Conference Committee took action to "take" two years of the local portion of the HUTA funding. For fiscal year 2009-10 they are proposing to take 100 percent of HUTA from local government and in 2010-11 they are proposing to take 75 percent of HUTA from local government.

This proposal will reduce Stanislaus County Public Works Operations and Maintenance budget by more than 60 percent in 2009-10, dramatically reducing the level of service that we can provide.

This "take" not only is unreasonable it is also unconstitutional. The League of California Cities is producing an authoritative legal memorandum that will show any reallocation of the local share of HUTA to the state would violate the provisions of Proposition 5.

Approved by voters in 1974, Proposition 5 provides constitutional protection of the HUTA for local government. Whether it is unconstitutional or not, the Budget Conference Committee budget proposal stands and will be going to the Assembly and Senate Floor for a vote and ultimately to the governor for signature.

This budget proposal will not only devastate Stanislaus County Public Works but also will similarly affect the other 57 counties.

Can we afford this loss of essential services? These are services that we take for granted; losing them will affect all of us on a daily basis.

Machado is Stanislaus County's public works director.