prices and rising inflation. And in a sign of acknowledgment to the advocacy of the contractor industry, the Governor’s proposal now only focuses on relaxing the diesel tax increase rather than the gas tax as originally proposed.


Bonds and Taxes While it is expected that California’s Democrats will always prefer govern- ment spending and increased taxes to support the expansion of social welfare programs, 2022 proved to demonstrate restraint by the majority party, to date. New taxes targeting large corporations and the wealthy have been quietly killed by legislative leadership. While not publicized, it can be un-


derstood that even Democrats recognize that record surpluses over the past couple of years (i.e., $86 billion dollars in 2022)


don’t warrant the passage of measures that increase taxes. It should be noted that California’s top 1% of income earners currently make up 46% of the revenues collected by the state. Legislators are currently deliberating


whether to place bond measures before voters. While not yet settled, it seems that there remains an appetite to pursue school and/or housing bond measures. Most of these bond proceeds would be used for the construction, rehabilitation, and modernization of education facilities. Specifically, these dollars would be


used for the kindergarten through com- munity college system, the University of California, and California State University systems. As for housing, these bond pro- ceeds would be used for predevelopment construction costs and forgivable loans intended to for home acquisition.


Time Will Tell From roads to schools, water infrastruc- ture to transit, the gap between the infra- structure needs of the state and funding solutions to the same remain part of a complex California story. There is no doubt California’s success will depend on policymakers continued understanding (and funding) of this critical infrastruc- ture.


While there is still time yet to see if the


economy slips into a recession, it seems the state’s policy makers are making the best of the good budget times for now.


Felipe Fuentes


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CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR JULY-AUGUST 2022


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