EDITORIAL : ON THE RIGHT TRACK; STATE TREASURER WANTS THE STATE TO FOCUS ON REBUILDING AGING FACILITIES, BUT HIS PLAN TO PAY FOR PART OF IT IS FLAWED.

STATE Treasurer Philip Angelides has devised a plan to intelligently rebuild the state's aging infrastructure before it becomes an even bigger crisis, and county and city planners around the state should take notes.

Angelides, in his state-mandated report on debt affordability, estimated that growth in the next 20 years will be California's largest ever.

During the next two decades, the population is expected to grow by 12 million people, more than 5 million jobs will be created, and more than 2 million additional students will enter elementary school.

He cautioned that insufficient planning will stress to the point of crumbling the state's roads, schools, water, electricity and transportation systems.

Smart planning, he said, combined with ``smart investments'' could save the state from itself.

The success of this plan rests on genuine regional planning that would bring neighboring communities together to jointly solve problems. Local control comes at a price: local matching funds to state bond money.

What Angelides - and many other Democrats - wants is to undo the taxpayer protection requiring that bond issues need a two-thirds voter majority to pass, instead of a simple majority.

He argues that the super-majority is too high a hurdle to achieve in order to raise the funds to improve the state's buildings and roads.

We disagree strongly.

Government officials have allowed California's infrastructure to deteriorate for 20 years - ever since passage of Proposition 13 - because they continued to feed the monster of bigger government payrolls while blaming the public for refusing to be taxed to death.

Voters have very little say over how their money is spent. Time and again, public officials have sold them a bill of goods, and then they used the money for other purposes or squandered it.

Still, voters, when they believe the money is going to be spent wisely, will agree to increase their taxes to pay for schools, as they did with Proposition 1A last November for state school bonds, or with the L.A. Zoo bond.

Lowering the mark to 50 percent is not the way to improve our quality of life or improve the performance of government.

Improving the people's faith in government because they see their elected officials doing a better job of looking after the public interest is the key. When voters trust government, they will support it by opening their wallets.

Investment is important, but it should not be done by taking away the only protection voters have from the excesses of government.

Let's see state government come to grips with Angelides' ``smart'' planning ideas and start solving the public's problems and making California a better place to live for all.

Then, we can talk about paying higher taxes.