The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the interest of the State of California to immediately take steps to relieve congestion on the state’s transportation systems and finds and declares the following:

(a) California’s population has grown by more than 50 percent over the past 20 years while highway capacity has increased only 7 percent.

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(b) Between 1987 and 1995, the number of California drivers who sit idle in traffic congestion has grown 70 percent, and California drivers now sit idle in traffic congestion more than 300,000 hours per day.

(c) It is estimated that traffic congestion in California now costs the state’s businesses more than two million eight hundred thousand dollars ($2,800,000) per day in lost time and resources.

(d) Local streets and roads in California suffer from an estimated ten billion two hundred million dollars ($10,200,000,000) backlog of deferred maintenance. The magnitude of this backlog is estimated to increase by four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) each year.

(e) The Public Transportation Account in the State Transportation Fund, which provides funds for transit operations and intercity rail service in California, is estimated to have a four-year deficit of fifty-three million dollars ($53,000,000), increasing to a six-year deficit of one hundred fifty-eight million dollars ($158,000,000).

(f) The state’s population is expected to exceed 45,000,000 persons by the year 2020, imposing additional demand on the transportation system.

(g) Significant benefits will be obtained by completing major improvements earlier, accelerating development of new improvements, and improving the connectivity of the various transportation modes within the state’s transportation system.

(h) Therefore, it is appropriate to create a Traffic Congestion Relief Fund to finance congestion relief improvements, to dedicate the sales tax on gasoline to transportation purposes, and to create a Transportation Investment Fund to finance improvements to neighborhood streets and roads, to provide funding for transit operations and intercity rail, and to supplement the Traffic Congestion Relief Fund.

(Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 91, Sec. 6. Effective July 7, 2000.)