For most planners, society's reliance on - and even outright integration - of the car into our social and physical culture is a tough pill to swallow. We believe we are fundamentally concerned with environmental, social, and health issues; and so the car is the machine against which we rage. To counter its evils, we push for neo-traditional urban design that promotes pedestrians and transit and eschews automobiles. We advocate for bicycles. We craft trip reduction ordinances that penalize employers draw loads of cars - or at least we used to until the regulations were rolled back. When we really build up a head of steam, we pull down freeways and bury them under parks and symphony halls, like San Francisco and Seattle have done. When the market allows, we adopt pricing schemes for central city parking lots that discourage driving into downtown. But let's face the facts. These examples amount to mere tokens of resistance. Truth be told, automobiles are our everything. What's more, cars not only rock our world, but they pay for it. Witness, for example, the fur that flew when Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Chatsworth) pushed for abolition of the so-called "car tax" last summer. The car tax is an ad-valorem fee charged annually as part of automobile registration. Picking up on a similar push for repeal in Virginia, McClintock railed against it as an unfair progressive taxing remnant of the socialist-leaning 1940s. Though this stunt was viewed by some as just another example of shameless political grandstanding by one of the state's most aggressive anti-tax crusaders, opposition erupted from unexpected quarters. Republican politicos from around the state - many of whose careers began in local government - saw the initiative as another Sacramento-led attack on municipal finance. Cities too came out in strong opposition. That's because car tax proceeds are one of the most important - and reliable - funding sources for local government. Though cars may not be a green transportation mode, they certainly bring in the green. After a threat by McClintock to take his idea to the voters via an initiative, the car tax become a fundamental part of the budget deal cut in Sacramento last month. The deal calls for an immediate to 65% cut, with the shortfall to cities made up by state general fund disbursements. The cut - and replacement subsidy - then is supposed to continue in subsequent years, placing another funding source to cities into the realm of the annual and very political budget negotiations in Sacramento. The car tax is but one of many automobile-related fees that keep cities and other governments running. Consider the others: o Parking fees, collected directly or through leases to operators. o Gas tax revenues, distributed on a per capita basis by the State Board of Equalization. o Moving violations, a portion of which are dedicated to prison-construction. o And, of course, sales tax on vehicles, which has contributed to the "auto-mall-ization" of the freeway strips statewide and is usually the largest component of sales tax proceeds. There are other sources as well, such as developer fees for traffic mitigation and federal funds. In all, revenues from car culture can approach 30% of all funds collected by municipalities in the state. Most of them go right back into satisfying the car culture. Streets, parking lots, and traffic signals commonly are the first or second largest public-works projects in most cities. Consider Sacramento, a diversified city that can even boast a pedestrian friendly center city and a light rail system. Here, where the best of government thinkers craft ways to diminish car reliance, car culture claimed 21% of the capital city's capital improvement plan allocation. Move to the south state, in coastal Ventura. Here, in a mid-sized town of 100,000 with an impressive coastal promenade and a walker-friendly seaside downtown, car culture accounts for 22% of public works expenditures. Car-oriented revenues loom large in the mind of city finance directors. And it places road engineers in a powerful position when it comes to dividing the municipal pie. So if you've ever wondered about why planners haven't made more progress in changing the nature of the discussion about transportation, pull out the municipal budget. Because when it comes to feeding the municipal machine, cars are footing the bill. Stephen Svete, a contributing editor of CP&DR, is a principal with Rincon Consultant Inc. of Ventura.