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A plan to raise $52 billion over a decade for roads, bridges, and mass transit reflects a big, ugly bill that Californians have little choice but to pay.

Most of the money, to come from higher gas taxes and vehicle fees, would go to repair infrastructure that residents are already using — and, in many cases, have been using long and often enough that it’s falling apart. Depressed oil prices and proliferating hybrid and electric vehicles have increased the need by cutting into gas-tax revenue. Uncertain federal support under President Trump could make matters worse.

Traffic and transportation needs are at the front of many of our minds in Marin. Municipalities and agencies across the county are constantly examining how they can make the worthy investments needed in our roads and transportation infrastructure.

At the state level, California is overdue in addressing our local roads, highways and bridges, and state funding reductions have drastically impacted local road maintenance programs.

That’s why we are thanking state Sen. Mike McGuire for coauthoring Senate Bill 1.

The behemoth transportation funding bill passed by the Legislature this week conforms to the poet John Godfrey Saxe’s famous aphorism about laws and sausages — that both “cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” The last leg of the plan’s journey through the Sacramento meat grinder only added more of the legislative equivalent of unsavory animal parts.

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislators showed what they can do when they are committed.

Most of the time, legislation — especially solving long-term problems — moves like icebergs.

The transportation bill proved that if legislators really want to get something done, they can.

Brown, committed to fixing and improving California’s transportation system, personally pushed through legislation to raise the gasoline tax and vehicle fees to generate money needed to fuel the much-needed work.