Central Valley Business Times —  The Great Recession is over. The state is showing billions of dollars in revenue above the budget. So Central Valley Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno, says it’s time the weight fees paid by truckers are put back where they were intended: into fixing the roads.
“Redirecting truck weights fees back to their intended purpose will help California invest in our state highways and create about 18,000 good jobs,” says Mr. Perea. “These fees would provide funding for projects leading to a beneficial multiplier effect in the state economy, through the vital creation of new jobs and overdue investment in our transportation infrastructure.”
His legislation, Assembly Bill 2728, would provide funding to rehabilitate California’s dilapidated roadways.  The weight fees were redirected during the Great Recession to keep state government afloat.
“Now with the economy and the state budget on better footing — and with our state transportation program woefully underfunded — it’s time to redirect truck weight fees back to their intended purpose of repairing our highway system,” says Jim Earp, executive director for the lobbying group California Alliance for Jobs.
Will Kempton, executive director of another lobby group, Transportation California and himself a former director of the California Department of Transportation, says it’s time to put the fees where the rubber meets the road. “The public recognizes the need to take care of our existing system, and recapturing these fees is a simple way to provide more money for the transportation program without raising taxes,” he says.