Monterey Herald - Jimmy Panetta, Casey Lucius Woo Santa Cruz Voters

News Article

By Jondi Gumz

Congressional hopefuls Jimmy Panetta and Casey Lucius offered different approaches to highway traffic congestion, speaking to 150 people Wednesday at the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce membership luncheon at the Cocoanut Grove.

Panetta, 46, deputy district attorney in Monterey County and a Democrat, told of being stuck in traffic for two hours driving to Santa Cruz Wednesday morning to meet with local business people.

The problem, he said, is divestment in infrastructure due to dysfunction in Washington, D.C.

He advised backing a half-cent local sales tax in November to pay for Highway 1 auxiliary lanes and local road maintenance and leveraging federal money, $305 billion coming for the next five years.

"You can raise the gas tax but with fuel efficiency, is that going to work? Maybe bring back earmarks," he said, referring to federal funds earmarked for local projects until being banned in 2010 to trim spending.

Lucius, 39, who serves on the Pacific Grove City Council, is a Republican and who resigned her Naval War College professorship for this bid, said tourists sitting in traffic for two hours could make the difference between a successful weekend or disappointment for a local restaurant or hotel.

She said Santa Cruz County got only $3 million for new transportation projects last year. The problem, she said, is 60 federal agencies and 30 congressional committees are involved in developing transportation policies.

"Streamlining the approval process frees up money to spend on projects we really need like "bus on the shoulder,'" she said, referring to a rapid bus service strategy used in Illinois and the Twin Cities .

She supports transportation bills extending 10 to 15 years and protecting the highway trust fund, which gets revenue from the gas tax.

"We have to get the right policies or we'll continue to throw money at these problems," she said.

On a workforce question, Panetta said he supports "a legal path to citizenship" and H2-A visa reform for farmworkers.

"My first priority is immigration reform," he said. "Hopefully in 2017 the Republican leadership will be ready to bring it forward."

Lucius suggested restoring job training for veterans, including 35,000 in the congressional district and 2 million nationwide, and targeting local needs. She recommended reforming the H-2A visa process involving five federal agencies, putting the program under the Department of Labor.

Noting she waited tables in college, she said small business owners need regulatory relief to free up money to hire employees.

On housing, Panetta noted median household income in Santa Cruz County is $75,000 and the median home price is $650,000. "Many of us would qualify" for federal Section 8 housing, he said, suggesting building up at transit hubs and ensuring federal tax credits for developers.

Lucius said her family lived paycheck to paycheck and moved when rent was raised. She and her husband bought a home in Pacific Grove after the housing bubble burst. Mother of a young son, she joined the traffic safety commission to deal with a dangerous intersection, which led her to run for City Council. She favors housing trust funds and waiving developer fees for homes bought by "underserved populations."

On education, Panetta said, "Tuition needs to be lowered," noting student loans total $1.2 trillion and 8 million students are in default.

Lucius said the newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act won't be funded until 2017.

"Who you elect will determine how it's funded," she said.

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