ROADS/BRIDGES: Incoming California Speaker pledges to focus on state infrastructure needs

Incoming California Speaker of the House Anthony Rendon, said his priorities include transportation funding. “Our infrastructure is busted and in tremendous need of repair,” Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, said in an interview with Press-Telegram at his district office in South Gate. Assembly Democrats selected Rendon, now in his second term, to succeed San Diego’s Toni Atkins as the next leader of the Legislature’s lower house. Rendon’s district includes North Long Beach, Lakewood, Hawaiian Gardens, Paramount, South Gate, Maywood, Cudahy and Bell. Long Beach’s mayor, along with Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, who represents Long Beach and San Pedro, said they expect Rendon will bring increased attention to issues affecting their area, including the movement of freight to and from the local ports as well as infrastructure improvements. A plan to raise $3.5 billion annually by raising California’s has tax and a $65 increase in vehicle registration has yet to be approved by the state legislature’s Republican minority. GOP members said that $6.6 billion can be dedicated to state infrastructure needs from existing revenues, without introducing any new taxes.