The recent infrastructure spending proposals by the governor and others promise to spur California's economy for decades to come. As a Valley resident, I am hopeful that the critical needs of the San Joaquin Valley will be addressed as the details are hashed out in Sacramento.

However, our Valley has historically been forgotten when the state and federal governments prioritize their spending on everything from education opportunities to health and public safety initiatives and economic development efforts. The initial signs on the various proposals seem positive for the Valley, including $1 billion in non-bond money for Highway 99 improvements, but the proposals are not guarantees, and will require a vigilant, unified effort from the Valley to turn the promises into reality.

For example, the state's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and Cal-EPA have been developing a Goods Movement Action Plan, which is intended to direct transportation funding to meet California's need to move goods, freight and other commodities. This is exactly what this administration should be doing to keep California competitive in the global marketplace. While the draft Goods Movement Action Plan continues the unfortunate tradition of ignoring our Valley's critical infrastructure needs, I am encouraged by the united effort of a bipartisan coalition of Valley legislators, local officials and private business owners, who spoke with one voice on Dec. 16.

Of particular importance in this action plan is the list of key infrastructure improvement projects deemed most important by the plan's drafters. These are the projects most likely to be funded, bringing both the economic benefits of well-paid construction jobs and improving a region's transportation system. The list of key projects contained $14.9 billion in projects, but $13.62 billion was dedicated to projects in the Los Angeles/Inland Empire transportation corridor. This priority list reveals a misunderstanding of California's goods movement infrastructure needs.

In fact, the list of key infrastructure improvement projects includes a mere $330 million for three projects along Highway 99, and none of these projects are in the short term. The draft is woefully inadequate and contrary to the administration's own assessment of the importance of the Valley and the Highway 99 corridor in particular. The Goods Movement Action Plan identifies Highway 99 as a "major international trade highway route." Highway 99 is the workhorse of the California Highway system, and experiences up to three times the state average in truck traffic, with an expected growth rate of more than 60% in the next 20 years.

State's pipelines

The authors of this draft have forgotten that California has four major transportation regions that support goods movement: the Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Los Angeles/Inland Empire and the San Diego/border corridors. California's long-term economic growth is dependent upon a fully funded and comprehensive transportation system. A significant inadequacy in planning for or the funding of any one of these regions seriously jeopardizes the entire system and threatens our state's economic security and employment growth.

In December, the Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, established in 2005 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, voted unanimously to adopt the business plan Caltrans released that identifies $6 billion in critically needed Highway 99 improvement projects to increase safety and capacity.

Thus, while Caltrans has recognized the necessity for immediate project funding to remove at-grade crossings and expand Highway 99 to six lanes throughout and eight lanes in certain urban places, and the action plan concurs in concept, the proposed list of priority projects to be funded largely ignores the Valley.

We cannot accept this situation silently. Fortunately, a bipartisan coalition joined together to stand up for the Valley at the Dec. 16 public hearing for the Goods Movement Action Plan. A bipartisan group of Valley legislators, local government officials and Valley business interests united to advocate the action plan be modified to include $6 billion in critical Highway 99 improvements over the next 10 years, to actually meet the strategic transportation needs of our Valley and the state.

By joining together, we were heard, and the administration is re-evaluating the action plan and the list of key infrastructure projects. In the coming year, the Valley coalition will need to remain strong as the Goods Movement Action Plan is finalized. Equally important, we in the Valley must speak with a unified voice on all the critical issues being discussed, especially with more than $200 billion in projects being planned in the coming year.

I hope the bipartisan Valley coalition, formed in response to this most recent issue, will stay together as policy priorities are decided for infrastructure spending, economic development and educational investments in the future. A healthy and vibrant Valley is not only in our best interest, but in the state's interest as well.

Juan Arambula, a Fresno Democrat, represents the 31st District in the California Assembly.