Dan Walters, after taking a roadtrip through the western United States, comes back to California and suddenly discovers that our roads are in disrepair. And for once, he actually gets close to the real causes for our deteriorating infrastructure:

With heavy use, the system needs, but is not getting, an extremely high level of maintenance to stave off deterioration. The gasoline tax, levied on gallonage, hasn’t been changed for many years. And because of greater fuel efficiency, the amount of gas being consumed has increased very little even as travel has increased sharply. Moreover, this flat revenue is being eroded by inflation.

The state Transportation Commission, in its 2008 report to the Legislature, put it this way: “The state’s gas tax can now only cover between 50 and 60 percent of the annual rehabilitation need … rapidly increasing the number of distressed lane miles on the system….

This year it added: “Every provider of transportation – from Caltrans to transit operators to small rural cities – faces a staggering bill for keeping the existing system from falling apart, let alone in good repair. The investment of our parents and grandparents is crumbling before our eyes.”

Walters is of course right to point to the state’s ridiculous unwillingness to raise the gas tax, or index it to inflation, as part of the problem. But it actually goes a bit deeper.

One proven method to extend the life of paved roads is to have fewer cars use them. Buses, trains, and other forms of mass transportation are desperately needed in California’s urban areas. But instead of increasing their availability, the state legislature broke the law and stole local transit agency funds, and appears to be in no mood to provide more money for buses, trains, and bicycle facilities despite growing demand. As a result, some badly needed and worthy projects, like East Bay Bus Rapid Transit, are being shelved due to a lack of funds.

The other factor that contributes to deteriorating roads Walters didn’t mention is state budget cuts. Over the last 20 years one of the frequent targets of budget cuts has been road maintenance. Caltrans has been under pressure to “relinquish” state highways – that is, turn them over to local governments. A state highway is the state’s responsibility to maintain, but when it has been relinquished, the maintenance becomes the responsibility of the local government. Those governments face the same fiscal stresses, owing to the inability to raise taxes and frequent state theft of what money they do have.

For the state highways and freeways that Caltrans has kept, maintenance has frequently been deferred. That results not only in the deteriorating pavement conditions Walters and many others have experienced on Interstate 80, but also causes the cost of the eventual rehabilitation work to soar.

Further, Caltrans maintains some of the most challenging roads in the nation, if not the world. I-80 over the Sierras gets hammered by snow, ice, and plows every winter. Highway 1 through Big Sur often gets washed down the cliff in an El Niño year, and even highways in SoCal deserts often get hit by flash floods. You can’t sustain that on the cheap.

What Walters is discovering is the common sense fact that if you want to have a transportation system – or for that matter, a health care system or an educational system or a domestic violence prevention and assistance system – you have to be willing to make the ongoing investment in its maintenance and effectiveness.

California has not done that. Instead we’ve believed that Two Santa Clauses will come along to provide low taxes and somehow magically provide good roads as well. Walters has part of the reason why this just doesn’t work, but if we’re to have an infrastructure that serves the needs of our state, it not only has to be funded – we must also commit to protecting core and vital government services from those who would destroy it.