County Expects Big Boost in Allocation of Highway Money

Orange County expects to receive five times as much money for highways and freeways through 1990 as it got during the last decade, the Orange County Transportation Commission reported Thursday.

The figures reflect a measure of a renewed statewide commitment to highway projects and the county’s growing clout in Sacramento, the commission said.

The $488 million targeted by the state Department of Transportation for highway construction in Orange County through 1990 represents 8% of expenditures throughout the state. It is more than twice the county’s share in the years since 1980, when that money increasingly flowed into Los Angeles County.

The money--assuming the state has the dollars to back up its commitments--will open the way for widening and improvement of the Santa Ana Freeway, reconstruction of the interchange between the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways, widening of the San Diego Freeway and extension of the Costa Mesa Freeway as far as 19th Street.

The report, scheduled for presentation to the transportation commission on Monday, reflects Orange County’s efforts over several years to expand its influence over how the state’s highway funds are spent.

Under former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., the county battled heavy cutbacks in highway improvement funds as more money went to mass transit throughout the state. In recent years, the county has seen an ever greater share of available money go to Los Angeles County.

While the Caltrans district which includes both counties has had a fairly constant level of money over the past decade, averaging about $132 million a year, overall construction spending in the district over the past five years has increased by 42%, while Orange County spending dropped 16%, according to the commission’s analysis.

None of the increased gas-tax revenues over the past few years have gone to Orange County, the analysis shows. Though the county was the second most populous in the state between 1980 and 1985, it received an average of only 3.8% of the state’s highway improvement funds.

Orange County officials say a number of factors have contributed to the more optimistic projections for the next five years.

Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande has been appointed to the California Transportation Commission, the panel which officially allocates highway money, and he served as commission chairman last year.

Two Orange County senators, Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach and John Seymour of Anaheim, sit on the Senate Transportation Committee.

And four Orange County legislators--Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach, Richard Robinson of Garden Grove, Nolan Frizzelle of Huntington Beach and Doris Allen of Cypress--are members of the Assembly Transportation Committee. Frizzelle is committee vice chairman.

Moreover, despite the 1982 defeat of a ballot initiative to raise the local sales tax by 1 cent for transportation, Orange County has raised more local money for transportation projects than any county in the state, other than Santa Clara County, which passed a sales-tax measure.

Importance of Local Efforts

In allocating money, the state Transportation Commission assigns importance to local efforts. In the past few years, Orange County has committed $432 million in fees on new development, interest on its mass-transit savings account, local government investment and other private contributions to improve its state highway system.

“Orange County simply has a more established presence now than it previously had,” Nestande said.

“The county has matured more politically, as far as making demands on the system and trying to get our legislative delegation to be more attentive to the needs of Orange County,” he said. “Heretofore, Orange County was always a stepchild of L.A., and Orange County got what was left over, which was very little.”

Stan Oftelie, executive director of the county Transportation Commission, said simply, “We have great needs.”

Santa Ana Project

The $300 million allocated for widening and improving the Santa Ana Freeway represents the largest chunk of the money committed to Orange County over the next five years, he said.

“There was a real successful effort to explain to the California Transportation Commission and Caltrans just how significant a project the Santa Ana Freeway is, how important the reconstruction and rehabilitation of it is to Orange County and the entire state of California,” he said.

But the state Transportation Commission’s analysis cautions that the $488 million promised to Orange County won’t be sent if the state doesn’t have it.

Highway commitments throughout California total $5 billion. Currently projected state and federal revenues will fall about $1 billion short of that amount, and that deficit could rise, depending on how severely the Gramm-Rudman cuts on the federal budget dip into highway spending.

Troublesome Policy

Moreover, Orange County officials are worried about a state policy adopted last year which assigns more importance to finishing interstate highways--such as the Century Freeway in Los Angeles--than rehabilitation projects like the Santa Ana Freeway.

At its worst, as much as 84% of the money for Orange County state highways could be delayed because of that policy, the commission’s report suggests.

At the commission’s meeting Thursday in Ontario, Nestande asked the commission staff to seek a full analysis of the policy’s impact on individual counties.

“If that result (84%) were to be a possibility, then we’ll get it altered because that’s not going to happen,” Nestande said.