Bond Plan Seen as No Panacea for Gridlock

Orange County motorists should not expect Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed $2.3-billion boost for state road construction to do much soon to loosen gridlock’s grip on the region’s streets and highways, planners and politicians said this week.

In the long run, Orange County’s share of the money probably won’t pay for any dramatic new efforts to cope with the county’s transportation crisis, according to government officials here and in Orange County. Instead, they said, the county’s portion of the money would keep on schedule the construction of projects already on the drawing board, especially the planned reconstruction of Interstate 5.

Deukmejian’s proposal calls for two bond measures totaling $2.3 billion over a four-year period, with 75% of that money going to state projects and the rest being used to match local spending on roads.

If the Legislature and the voters approve, the money from the bonds would begin to trickle into state coffers in 1988 or 1989. So it would probably be 1990, maybe later, before any of the funds are actually used to pay for new roads.

Although the state’s portion of the money hasn’t been earmarked for any particular roads, John Sullivan, undersecretary for business, transportation and housing, said the funds would be allocated by the California Transportation Commission according to the commission’s five-year plan.

The local portion would be distributed the same as the local portion of the state’s gasoline tax, which is doled out through a formula involving vehicle registrations, population and assessed values.

“All the projects already on schedule for the five-year plan will be fully funded,” Sullivan said of the proposal’s likely impact. “There will no longer be any doubt as to whether there will be any money.”

That means that Orange County’s top transportation priority--the widening and reconstruction of Interstate 5--will be more likely to proceed on schedule, said Stanley T. Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission.

“If the state is significantly underfunded, projects get bumped back and others don’t go on line, in Orange County and elsewhere in the state,” Oftelie said. “If you fully fund the (state transportation plan), it gives us a better opportunity to compete and get those projects funded.”

But because the state has already agreed to spend about $500 million on the 10-year, $1-billion Santa Ana Freeway project, the governor’s proposal will probably have little local impact other than to keep that project on line, Oftelie said. The sooner the I-5 project is finished, the sooner others can begin, he added.

“The governor is showing a commitment to transportation, and that commitment is the most clear, positive message we can get,” Oftelie said. “He’s identified transportation as a major issue in the state, and he’s aggressively pursuing some measures to deal with a tremendous need. . . . I’m not too sure what good this does for us. I hope it does us a lot of good.”

But because the impact on Orange County appears to be distant and limited, several members of the county’s delegation in the state Legislature were less than enthusiastic about the governor’s plan.

Ferguson Not Pleased

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), who has proposed a permanent $1.7-billion-a-year increase in transportation funding paid for by the sales tax on gasoline and motor vehicles, said Deukmejian’s plan might backfire because it falls far short of fulfilling the state’s needs.

“If we approach the public with a solution that doesn’t really solve the problem, what happens later when we go back and ask them for additional help is it discourages and frustrates the public because they think they’ve already solved that problem,” Ferguson said. “Of course, we know this is nowhere near a solution to the problem.”

Ferguson, whose proposal has the backing of the Assembly Republican Caucus, said he will continue to pursue support for the measure even in the face of a competing proposal from fellow Republican Deukmejian.

Other Assembly Republicans from Orange County, including Doris Allen of Cypress, Ross Johnson of La Habra and Nolan Frizzelle of Huntington Beach, said they were skeptical of the governor’s proposal because it would finance road construction by expanding the state’s debt, which already requires payments from the state budget totaling $620 million a year.

The bonds proposed by the governor would probably be repaid over a 20-year period, meaning that about 70 cents in interest would have to be paid for every $1 borrowed.

Frizzelle, who proposes that private toll roads be built in places where the county has no money to pay for highways, said he prefers more of a “pay-as-you-go” approach than that called for in the governor’s plan.

“It’s a defensive move, guarding against further delays,” Frizzelle said of Deukmejian’s proposal. “I think there are other options out there that are a lot more constructive.”

Allen also has a proposal, co-sponsored by tax crusader Paul Gann, to prohibit the state from using money raised from the sales tax on gasoline for anything other than road projects. Allen said she believes that that proposal, which would raise an extra $500 million a year for highways, might be the better way to go.

“I’m not really crazy about obligating future generations for what we’re trying to do today. It’s sort of self-defeating,” she said.