As Sacramento continues to fiddle over addressing California’s massive and worsening deficiencies in highway and road repair, Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga, has once again introduced common-sense legislation with the potential to ease some of the problems.

Assembly Bill 278 calls for exempting existing roads and highways that have already been reviewed pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act from additional reviews before maintenance and repair work can be done.

“Requiring another unnecessary step before repairing our broken infrastructure will only slow down and delay crucial maintenance,” Steinorth argues.

At a time when the state is dealing with a $59 billion maintenance backlog for state roads and bridges, and local governments even more than that, one would think a proposal to streamline repairs without compromising the environment or health of the public would be embraced by politicians who ostensibly represent the public.

Simply processing CEQA applications can add months of delay to projects that have already been vetted under the terms of the law. Steinorth’s bill is narrow in scope and simply modernizes a redundant process that doesn’t serve the best interests of the public.

Notably, the bill still requires compliance with other environmental laws, including the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the California Endangered Species Act, which should allay concerns that this bill thwarts environmental protections.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Steinorth has introduced legislation of this sort. Last year, he introduced a similar bill, AB1569, with strong support by the Southern California Association of Governments, the California Transportation Commission and the California Chamber of Commerce.

Many local government agencies also supported the bill, recognizing the potential for lowered costs to taxpayers and the expediting of needed maintenance.

“Full environmental reviews of routine maintenance or improvement projects for existing roadways, tunnels and bridges dramatically increases costs to the taxpayers, and creates significant delays to project completion, affecting commerce and the safety and quality of life of the traveling public,” argued San Bernardino County in support.

Despite these common-sense arguments, Steinorth’s proposal died in the California Assembly’s Committee on Natural Resources.

Committee Chair Das Williams, D-Carpinteria, argued at the time that Steinorth was simply trying to circumvent the state’s environmental laws and argued instead that Steinorth should support the favored policy of the Democrats. “Nice try ... if you want to help, vote for a tax,” Williams told Steinorth.

Following the vote against the proposal, Steinorth correctly observed that the Legislature was out of touch with the practical, everyday needs of the public. “While they continue to kill any effort to prioritize critical road repairs, my constituents in the Inland Empire face long commutes on deteriorating roads every day,” said Steinorth.

Whether things will go any differently this time remains to be seen, but as was true last year, the idea of exempting existing roads and highways from reviews they have already undergone makes sense. Our roads and highways are in need of repair — superfluous reviews and processes should not be impediments to getting needed work done.

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