It was no coincidence that Gov. Jerry Brown held a rally and press conference in Concord on Thursday morning to tout his new transportation deal, which would permanently raise gas taxes and increase vehicle registration fees.
The rally site, on bare land next to a grocery store parking lot, sits in the districts of state Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, and Assemblyman Tim Grayson, D-Concord. Brown needs their votes to pass the tax package — and so far he doesn’t have them.
The transportation proposal will test whether Democrats can leverage the new supermajority they won in the November elections. The answer is uncertain.
Tax increases require two-thirds support in both houses of the Legislature. That means Brown needs all 27 Democratic senators and all but one of the 55 Assembly members from his party — unless he can win over Republicans.
In the Senate, Brown is trying to pick off a Republican vote to garner needed support. Unable to entice Glazer, his own former political adviser, the governor said he hoped to instead persuade Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, to back the deal.
“Cannella is more open than Glazer is” to supporting the bill, Brown said in an interview Thursday afternoon. It’s unclear whether Cannella is willing to deal. Cannella’s spokesman said the senator had taken no position and is “open to continuing discussions.”
Glazer, the governor said, is withholding his support because he wants a provision banning BART transit strikes. Brown called that a “perfectly reasonable” idea — it is — but “a non-starter” in this case. “That would kill the bill,” he said.
In other words, the governor seemed to be saying, the future of road repairs in this state hinges on the blessings of labor unions. Glazer would say only, “I’m in discussions with the governor and don’t have a position” on the bill. For now, he said, “I’m not on board.”
Brown also lacks needed support in the Assembly. Part of the problem is that he, legislative leaders and labor unions may be pushing too hard too fast.
For more than a year, Brown had urged legislators to address the state’s crumbling roads and highways. The deal finally came together this week and was announced by Brown and Democratic leaders of the Senate and Assembly on Wednesday.
According to their summary, the bill would permanently raise gas and diesel taxes and impose new car registration fees. (The press release didn’t mention that most of the taxes and fees would continue increasing with the consumer price index starting in 2020.) The increases would raise an estimated $5.2 billion annually during the first 10 years to fund road and transit improvements.
They also announced that the Senate and Assembly would vote on the deal eight days later. The amended bill, SB 1, wasn’t even in print then.
“We’ve got a heavy lift here and we’re just trying to get it done,” Brown said Thursday when asked about the rush. “Delaying is often a way to kill it.”
Grayson and Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, both said they wanted to read the bill language before making up their minds. It’s a more-than-reasonable request.
But Levine said he was already being questioned on why he had not declared his support. “The devil is in the details and we don’t have bill language to properly vet a $5.2 billion tax increase on Californians,” he said.
But that didn’t stop many Democratic legislators, the League of California Cities or BART Board President Rebecca Saltzman, for example, from declaring their fealty within minutes of the announcement of the deal Wednesday.
And it didn’t stop Brown, Democratic legislative leaders and labor unions from holding the Thursday morning rally in Concord.
Just to the left of the governor a guy in a hard hat and a yellow reflective jacket held up a picture of Orinda’s Miner Road collapse with the demand “Senator Glazer, Fix This Now. Vote Yes on SB 1.”
Never mind that the sink hole was probably caused by an overflowing creek and that Glazer has worked hard to help the city fund the repairs. This was about political intimidation. We’ll see if it works.
Daniel Borenstein is a Bay Area News Group columnist
