In addition to coping with outdated and overburdened transportation and water systems, California faces other public works challenges.

Airports

Air travel has become an increasingly congested part of our state's transportation system. Two of our international airports, Los Angeles and San Francisco, are among the top five busiest in the nation.

Passenger growth at SFO has skyrocketed from 18 million passengers in 1980 to 41 million in 2002, making it the ninth-busiest airport in the world. That growth, coupled with frequent low visibility and insufficient runway width, has caused SFO to rank worst in the nation for bad-weather delays. Even with construction of a giant new international terminal, San Francisco International Airport will remain among the nation's 10 most congested airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Delays and crowds are becoming the norm at all Northern California airports. Passengers at San Jose International Airport jumped from 7 million in 1993 to more than 13 million in 2002. Passengers at Oakland International have jumped from 6.6 to more than 11 million in the last decade. Sacramento International now serves more than 7 million passengers a year.

Passengers are one side of the story; cargo is the other. In the Bay Area, air cargo is a huge industry, despite recent volume declines. San Francisco International ranks 12th in the nation for cargo volume and second in terms of cargo dollar value. More than 860,000 metric tons are shipped through the airport annually. In Oakland, the tonnage exceeds 600,000 metric tons.

The bottom line is that without steady expansion of facilities to meet growth in passenger and cargo business, travelers and business operators alike will suffer increasing losses of both time and money. And the economy will suffer.

The Bay Area's three major airports alone generate more than $35 billion in direct business revenue. That revenue supports 470,000 jobs, which in turn generate more than $13.2 billion in personal income.

Ports

Like our airports, robust maritime ports are critical to California's economic health. They generate $23.7 billion in revenue, contribute $40.6 billion to the national economic output and help create 278,000 jobs statewide.

To continue this kind of productivity, our ports need refurbishment and enlarging.

For example, the future of the Port of Oakland, the fourth largest container port in the U.S. and the only gateway for containerized cargo in Northern California, hinges on completion of a multi-million-dollar expansion of its maritime facilities and rail links now underway. Regular dredging is also required to keep the port's channels open to large container ships.

Of California's 11 commercial ports, seven have identified $560 million in ground access needs alone over the next 10 years. All of these projects are largely unfunded.

Schools and other public institutions

California needs to build seven new classrooms a day for five years to keep up with expected growth.

Our K-12 facilities need $19.06 billion in funding between 2000 and 2005 for new construction, deferred maintenance and modernization.

About 55 million square feet (45 percent) of the total building space in the three public higher education segments in California was built or renovated before 1970. (This amount exceeds all building space in the 107-campus community college system.) Also, most of the 9.5 million square feet of buildings in the state hospitals and developmental centers was built before 1960.

The median age of state office and warehouse facilities is 20 years.

Nearly 75 percent of the state's courthouses were built before 1980. More than half were built before 1970.

There's a $2 billion backlog in required maintenance and modernization for the state's libraries.

The cost of retrofitting California's 473 hospitals is estimated at $5 to $10 billion over the next 10 years.

Sources: San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento airports, ports of San Francisco and Oakland, state Department of Education, California Commission on Building for the 21st Century.