The year 2025 is coming, and it’s going to bring
ever-escalating congestion, funding problems for infrastructure,
and a lack of college-educated workers to sufficiently man the
expanding service sector of the economy, according to the Public
Policy Institute of California.
On Aug. 9, Ellen Hanak, a research fellow from the Public Policy
Institute of California, presented a report on “California
2025″ to elected officials, lobbyists, academics and
concerned private citizens in attendance at UCLA to discuss
pressing issues, with the hope of creating public policies now to
deal with the roots of these problems.
The presentation was cosponsored by the UCLA Institute of the
Environment and the California League of Conservation Voters.
The Public Policy Institute is a non-profit research
organization that makes information available to policy-makers, but
does not take sides on political issues.
“The advantage of the discussion we have here today is the
opportunity to clarify what we really know about these issues,
rather than just what we think,” said Mary Nichols, director
of the UCLA Institute of the Environment.
Economic and population growth are expected to continue to
strain the public education system. The economy will continue
shifting away from construction and manufacturing to jobs that are
highly skilled and require high levels of education.
The fastest-growing demographics also tend to be the least
well-educated, Hanak said.
Only 8 percent of Latinos, predicted to be the largest ethnic
group in the state by 2011, hold college degrees, according to the
Public Policy Institute.
“We’re still facing a potential shortfall of skilled
workers,” Hanak said. “This suggests a real need to
think long-term and start now.”
Another obstacle for education and other infrastructure
improvements will be funding. State and federal funding have been
decreasing, and citizens have been increasingly forced to pick up
the slack through local bond initiatives.
Funding problems are also present in transportation, which in
Los Angeles ““ consistently ranked as the most congested area
in the country ““ is already a problem for most residents.
Due to changes in lifestyle and in the family structure, total
vehicle miles traveled in the state has risen three times faster
than population growth in recent decades, Hanak said.
Highway lane mileage has increased only 6 percent since the
1980s, but vehicle miles traveled has risen by 87 percent during
that time, Hanak said.
Congestion can only be expected to get worse, as the population
continues to increase and California’s urban areas continue
to sprawl inland.
In times when there is little funding to be invested, choices
must be made between highways and mass transit, which often become
bitterly contested issues along partisan and class lines.
Mass transit tends to be needed more by the poor, and toll roads
may only be feasible in well-off areas.
While private investment solutions, such as non-government
operated toll roads, may provide the needed services, such
“user-pay” systems also raise questions of equity and
economic justice.
“As we look at issues that seem so simple, like user-pay
… we need to keep in mind that there are people who need to move
but cannot pay,” said Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza (D-Carson),
chair of the state assembly’s transportation committee.
Problems the state government will be facing in funding and
investment will only be compounded by falling confidence among
citizens.
“What our surveys have been showing for a number of years
now is a lackadaisical approach, if not disinterest of
government,” Hanak said.
When the people do not fully support or believe in their
governments, there is often a resistance to state planning
measures, which may be urgently needed to alleviate infrastructure
problems, she said.