I-5 Project Hits a Roadblock; Tax May Be Only Solution

The $1-billion widening of the Santa Ana Freeway--key to Orange County’s traffic relief plan--is $400 million in the red and cannot be completed before 2008 without new county taxes or fees, a study by the Orange County Transportation Commission warned Wednesday.

Scheduled to begin this fall, the project is being viewed by some as the potential “centerpiece” of any new countywide sales tax proposals, an OCTC staff report concluded.

Without endorsing the new tax approach, the commission suggested that a strategy of focusing voter attention on the massive Santa Ana Freeway project could help a tax measure avoid the fate of Proposition A, the 1-cent countywide sales tax measure strongly supported by OCTC but soundly defeated in June, 1984.

Laundry List of Projects

Proposition A would have raised about $1.2 billion over 15 years for a laundry list of highway and transit projects, including a light rail line.

Options other than a sales tax--such as new vehicle registration and developer fees--should be considered, the OCTC report stated, but they face serious political opposition in the Legislature, which must approve them.

Even assuming that every state and federal highway dollar available is earmarked for the Santa Ana Freeway widening project, “traffic congestion would overwhelm the existing freeway before I-5 improvements could be built,” according to the OCTC study. “Moreover, no money would be left for traffic improvements needed on other freeways in the county.”

“Under very optimistic assumptions, the flow of highway funds from Sacramento to Orange County won’t be enough to complete the I-5 widening project until the year 2008,” the OCTC study adds. “Given existing and projected traffic congestion on the freeway, this construction schedule is unacceptable. On the other hand, if local money were available to supplement state and federal highway dollars, the project could be completed as early as 1997.”

Following the 1984 Proposition A debacle, county politicians have been loathe to suggest returning to voters with another tax proposal. But with the county’s population expected to grow nearly a third by the year 2010 and traffic delays mounting daily, the idea is being recirculated.

Several groups have held meetings to discuss financing alternatives, including local tax measures, but have reached no conclusion.

A so-called “Super Committee” created by the Orange County division of the California League of Cities has been inventorying sentiment among city officials throughout the county in a bid to “build a consensus” about transportation priorities and funding methods.

Bob Dunek, league executive director, said the 15-member committee--chaired by Santa Ana Mayor Dan Young--has asked officials from each of the county’s 26 cities to rank the three regional and five community transportation projects they consider most important. A report will be issued this fall.

Dunek said that once there is agreement on projects that need funding, the committee will analyze and recommend funding methods, possibly including a local sales tax. But so far, he cautioned, there is no consensus.

While attending an urban affairs conference last Saturday at Cal State Long Beach, Young told The Times that the biggest obstacle to proposing a sales tax measure is “packaging.”

Some people, Young said, want to make the Santa Ana Freeway widening project the focus of any new tax measure, unlike the unsuccessful 1984 ballot proposition. But others, he said, believe strongly that widespread support cannot be generated without including at least some local road improvements that voters feel strongly about in their own communities.

“It’s probably true that most people in Orange County appreciate and understand the significance of the Santa Ana Freeway,” Young said. “But let’s face it. It’s another thing to take someone who personally may not view that freeway as their own worst daily transportation problem and ask them to tax themselves for it.”

Meanwhile, members of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, Industrial League of Orange County and the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County also have been meeting to discuss transportation priorities and funding alternatives, including a possible sales tax measure.

The state has been planning to spend about $300 million on the Santa Ana Freeway project between now and 1992. However, after 1992, the county has no assurance from the state that it will obtain any more than its regular yearly allocation of state highway funds--which is less than $50 million a year, even under optimistic estimates.

The $400-million shortfall is the amount of money needed to finish the later stages of the Santa Ana Freeway project after the county’s regular state highway allocation is taken into account.

Scheduled to begin in October, the $80-million first and second stages of the Santa Ana Freeway project actually involve widening the Costa Mesa Freeway’s approaches to the I-5 interchange. Reconstruction of the interchange, to follow, has a $14-million funding shortfall, according to OCTC Executive Director Stan Oftelie.

“Anyone who seriously studies it (freeway finances) realizes that you need a significant local funding source,” Oftelie said. Counties such as Santa Clara that have adopted local transportation tax measures move to the front of the state’s highway funding list, he said, because of state officials’ desire to reward and match local funding commitments.

According to the OCTC study, prepared by members of the commission staff, a motor vehicle fuel tax increase of 9 cents per gallon statewide would provide $80 million for Orange County but would be strongly opposed in Sacramento, and there would be difficulty using the money under the so-called Gann government spending limits.

Each quarter-cent of a countywide sales tax would raise $40 million to $50 million per year. Legislation is pending in Sacramento to allow counties blanket authority to seek voter approval for such taxes. Previously, each county was given authority individually, on a case-by-case basis.

Levying property taxes by establishing so-called freeway improvement authorities has been strongly opposed by city officials throughout the county and is not supported by a citizens’ advisory committee that reports to OCTC on the Santa Ana Freeway project.

Developer fees, already levied to raise money for planned new freeways in south Orange County, would generate an unknown amount of revenue and would require intensive study.