" If the city and county wouldn't have taken millions apon millions of dollars out of the already designated road fund we would not be in this sittuation.When they did take the money or 'borrow' it as they say, they knew they would not and could not put it back and just came up with the "we'll deal with it next year routine'. The roads just kept getting worse without up keep and now we are to present day and the solution is to have the tax payers bail them out again. Where is the accountability for this 'borrowing', and why is this OK to do. How about a freeze on raises for county workers? Apply for more grants.Cut back on the "General fund'' and put money back into roads.The longer this goes on ,the worse it will be with the roads and the cost. I guess nothing will be done now? Maybe I'm confussed, but what will be going on in the near future? Wasn't this addressed or stated at this meeting? "

" napa = billions in wine $$..seems logical. "

" Get on the grant band wagon and not miss out on any more opportunities! I know there could be a lot more funds applied for (FHWA/Caltrans), but staff are being held back. If it's a problem with grant match that's one thing, but if it just has to do with staff time or initial grant start up? Make it a priority or hire someone who will for us if there is truly no one else available! It's sad to see every other city and county getting these funds!

Hold off on any more luxury items like office remodels and get with the program here for Roads. Other communities are! I don't think my cubicle has been replaced in 10 years and the carpet? Goodness knows how long that's been...comes down to priorities in the public sector.

And as marine1/1 suggests...does anyone have a factual count on how much has really been borrowed from the Roads fund or is it a myth? Are we compensating FEMA non-reimbursed funds from the Roads budget here as well? Yikes! Get those project completed and reimbursed so we can focus on Roads again! "

" I don't know what the county is doing by the city just remodeled the public works building, go see what your tax dollard has done.
The grants are out there unless they already put in for them, and if they had you would see something done. When you get a grant you have to account for what you do with the money to the state.
I've also herd that the streets will be taken care of as soon as the construction is done, but it never will be done. "

" The roads should've been fixed a long time ago. Too many airheads running the show. Should've passed on the million dollar cable car busses and all of the 2nd and 3rd studies that so many times prove useless. What a waste of good money ! How about some good ol fasioned honesty with"We the people"? To the city leaders : "Shape up or Ship out" ! "

" Dan, my question for you is where has the money gone that the county and the cities have spend on road mainenance for the last 150 years? "

" They have not taken money or borrowed money out of the roads fund. Road money has traditionally come from the state, and the state has taken the money from local governments, that is why there is less money for roads.

The county lent the roads money from other areas to cover repairs until we got reimbursed from FEMA. FEMA is reimbursing most of the money, but not all which is another hit on local funds.

Dan, I guess you and I had the same idea this week.

I think the employees are overpaid. Did you see the new contract with the mid management employees for the City that came out two weeks ago? All of them are in six figures, with 4-5% increases this year. Meanwhile workers in the private sector saw a .9% DROP in their income last year.

We also have to ask ourselves how much human services we can afford. Huge money is going into that and every time an initiative comes along "for the kids" it gets passed. But now I guess I am a cold hearted Republican.

The truth is that each person has to learn to make their own way in life, whether we hand them a bunch of money or not. I think there has to be a safety net at the bottom for people who really aren't mentally healthy enough to make it, and for emergencies, but beyond that I don't think in the long run all these social services really help people that much. Pretty outrageous to say it, but I believe that it is true. "

" You know what Napablogger...You can give a rip about the middle class which makes up these so called overpaid workers. Yet...if it were an oil company exec, bilking us out of our money, you'd just simply state that it is free market capitalism at work...the thing that makes our country so great. These workers are paid what their unions were able to negotiate for them, no different than an oil company telling us to let the market will take care of itself after telling us why they are justified in making the profits that they do. "

" Let the roads go to you know where. Maybe it will discourage folks from coming here and ruining our serenity.
Surely there will be the kind that disagree and welcome tourists,but,oh well. Somehow they've lost touch with beauty and serenity. They must need a bottle of wine and a circus environment to feel alive. They've never understood the meaning of "Live and Learn". "

" I agree with misfit that the workers are paid according to what the union gets for them. I agree with Napa Blogger that it is too much. The real problem is that our elected and appointed officials have been bargaining from both sides of the table - receiving election donations from unions and then giving unions what they want - and that is criminal. I think it will soon be rectified by requiring an oath of honesty to protect taxpayer dollars. "

" I believe the money for Napa roads should come from the wineries and hotels that put all the traffic on our roads. If we did not have all the tourists in our town our roads would probably last longer. Also the trucks that drive back and forth to the wineries cause a lot of damage to our roadways. "

" How about having the people that use the roads pay for them - a radical thought? Large new hotels and other businesses like housing developments cause thousands of additional road trips a day yet pay nothing other than putting in a turn lane or sometimes a traffic light. Anyone that has driven across Trancas or down Big Ranch Road lately can see the results- many many more cars that "magically" have appeared. There should be a far greater road impact assessment on all new businesses over a certain size that would go toward the annual maintenance of Napa County; not just the City, roads. As an example I'll bet that the Westin, etc. will result in thousands of additional car trips/day by it's staff and guests and it isn't paying anything toward that end. The occupancy tax and other fees don't dent the additional cost of the Valley's services. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that all of the financial projections based on very high room rates at all of these new hotels is a joke. We've way over built hotel rooms in the Valley and that is depressing room rates considerably - for many years to come. By the way the above comments also apply to the costs and supply of water. We scream about a water shortage and keep building hotels and even massive water swallowing golf course. I wonder who owns a piece of what? "

" Aw heck, Vern, you don’t need all that blacktop and cement anyway. My four wheel drive pick-‘em-up truck gets along just fine on these dusty ol’ dirt roads. All these folks that are so worried about green technologies should be happy to stop keeping away from all that there toxic stuff that is used to pave the roads any old way. In some parts, they just cut the front end off that ol’ pick-‘em-up truck and hitch the back side to a donkey’s back side. Then they have a green vehicle and don’t need all that silly ol’ pavement all over the place any hoo. Just do what they do in Mexico and you’ll make half the population feel right to home. "

" Lola: The additional traffic all these enterprises create require fuel. The taxes on fuel are INTENDED to fund the construction and maintenance of the roads. So by pure virtue of the increased traffic, increased taxes are generated via the fuel taxes associated with that increased traffic. The problem comes in when we rob Peter to pay Paul, using funds from the fuel taxes to pay for projects that have little or nothing to do with roads. "

" Increased gas tax. But keep the taxes separated by county. What's another penny or two at the pump anyways? "

" so Lola...seems to me that that only way your idea,having the people that use the roads pay for them, would work, is to make all the roads toll roads.....after all, lola, aren't you using them if you run down to the market or to the bank? "

" Where is the money from the roads? I believe in past elections, we voted to raise taxes for road repairs...where is it? "

" "TALK ON BLOG" YOU ARGUE ABOUT CHANGE. THE BEST WAY TO GET RESULTS IS TO WRITE THE NAPA COMMISSION OR YOUR CAL. STATE REP.
THE ONLY THING I SEE HERE IS THE PROBLEM WITHOUT SOLLUTION. HOW MUCH TIME DOES ONE HAVE, TO SIT AND COMPLAIN ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM GRFITTI TO HUNGER STRIKES. ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN. ITS THE SAME NAMES EVERY TIME. START SENDING LETTERS TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. CHANGE DOESNT HAPPEN OVER NIGHT,BUT IF ENERGY IS PUT TO THE RIGHT USE, IT MAY WORK.
QUIT CRYING. DO SOMTHING OTHER THAN ,B----ING ABOUT YOUR OVER RATED TOWN. "

" So Raven my local real estate taxes should go toward covering the little driving I do. You don't really think the hotels and housing developments are paying their fair share of taxes? I'm sure they have been given tax incentives that we are paying for. "

" Four Comments and a Suggestion:

1) The Gas Tax is charged based on gallons of gas used. As the price goes up, usage drops and so does the tax revenue. It seems counter-intuitive, but that's the way it works.

2) The State keeps borrowing money earmarked for local roads, to help balance their budget. At some point it might get reimbursed to the Cities and Counties, but who knows? Meanwhile, Cities and Counties don't have the cash to fix roads.

3) New development generally pays what is known as an Impact Fee, which is designed to make them pay for their fair share of new roads, parks, etc. These Impact Fees don't contribute to maintenance, but they do contribute towards new roads or traffic signals, etc.

4) Napa and Solano Counties are about the last 2 counties in the Bay area that are not "self-help" counties (aka, haven't imposed local taxes for roads). That means we are at a disadvantage in getting grants for roads. Think about it: if I have a million dollars, do I give it to Napa and get a million dollars of value, or to Contra Costa County, who can match my million with their million?

A better approach would be something like the Napa Flood Project: get all the people and the players in one room, educate each other on what's real and what's not, and then craft a solution that works and people can support.
mj "

" I was of the understanding that the taxes that we pay at the pump were earmarked for roads, that is what they say anyway. The fact that the government chooses to use the money for other purposes is what is irritating. In-fact that is why California gas prices are so much higher than the rest of the country, we get charged more per gallon of gas in taxes than any other state. And there are local taxes on-top of state taxes on-top of federal taxes. We really should be using gas tax money to pay for the roads, personally, I would not ever want to give them any more money... "

" Lola, your gas tax was instituted in theory because the property taxes do not pay for the road maintenance and construction. It is supposed to, again in theory, be dedicated to that purpose.

As for the share the hotels are paying, they probably aren't and while I don't have figures at hand, I am sure some here do, they may well have been given incentives, usually in the form of tax exemptions or credits.

But I would wager that most of the visitors to the valley don't stay in Napa hotels, so any tourist taxes are not being paid by them....so how would you have them pay for their wear and tear on the road? "

" To Mark Joseph - Regarding your #1: If gas usage goes down road usage goes down and the requirement for repairs goes down. Your #4: You use the term "self help" incorrectly. Self help is used by transportation entities to indicate that local monies can augment state and federal monies. Your use of the term is backwards to imply that 2 local counties don't have taxes therefore we don't get matching funds, wrong. And to be very clear, there are only 22 of the 58 California counties which have transportation sales taxes over and above the 7.25% basic sales tax, indicating that this is a very unpopular tax in California. Only 1 of the 4 counties bordering Napa County have a transportation sales tax. "

" We all use the roads or we derive a direct benefit from them. Not only wine and tourism but I get to work everyday on a road. I see the only way to get road improvements is to get more money into the transit infrastructure system. You may argue that it is someone elses responsibility to pay or that the system has been mismanaged. I say it they are our roads and this is our government. This is democracy in action, and this was the best solution that we have been able to develop. I ride a bike to work and I did not think this tax was good for cyclists, but I supported it because my kids will need the infrastructure that made California the greatest place on earth to live.
We need to get together and stand for something, show the world that Napa is "World Class".
The next sales tax measure; more transit, lets do trains, express busses, bike lanes, pedestrian improvements, and skip the expensive freeway overpasses. "

" to Bike to Work: We are already together and stand for something - "We" stand for "No New Taxes" and quite frankly having defeated a sales tax in 2006, a college bond this year and now seeing the county supes intimidated into withdrawing the most recent trans tax - Napa County voters are becoming quite the talk of the state anti-tax groups. "

" Wher it should have in the first place. The state gasoline taxes. Those were designed for infrastructure repair and maintenance. But, the state has obsconned with those revenus for other purposes.

It's time for a state constitutional convention to replace our state government! "