Orange County Toll Roads Bill Survives Senate Test

In a sign of growing support for the concept of toll roads in California, the Senate on Thursday narrowly passed legislation that would allow traffic-choked Orange County to build the pay-to-use highways as a pilot project.

The bill was sent to the Assembly on a 22-10 vote, one more than was needed for passage, after its author, Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), pleaded with his colleagues to consider the gridlock conditions that plague his county. He also asked them to disregard any effect it might have in setting a statewide precedent.

Only last month, the Assembly passed legislation that would allow construction of toll roads statewide. And several senators said Thursday’s passage of the Seymour bill shows strong evidence that California’s traditional reluctance to alter its tax-financed freeway system may be fading.

“The sentiment (for toll roads) is building,” Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) lamented after the vote.

Roberti, who spoke passionately against the bill as “foreign to our way of life,” said that some members supported the measure because it was a “district bill” and that lawmakers traditionally accede to requests of their colleagues on legislation that affects only their districts. But he suggested that opponents will have to fight hard to sidetrack the statewide toll road bill when it reaches the Senate.

“I’m certainly going to work that bill harder,” Roberti said.

Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno, who held out until the last moment before casting his vote for the Seymour bill, said he and others supported the measure partly because of Seymour’s plea.

But while stating that the Assembly-passed toll road bill “does not stand as good a chance” in the Senate, Maddy noted that traffic conditions are worsening all over California and that there is a growing awareness that government can no longer solve the problem on its own.

Gov. George Deukmejian, in an interview earlier this week, also indicated that he would sign a statewide toll road bill as long as it requires that such roads be built parallel to existing freeways so that drivers would have a choice. If motorists “want to pay to ride on a particular stretch of highway, I don’t think that would bother me too much,” Deukmejian said.

Separated by Miles

The requirement for parallel construction of the new roads is embodied in the Orange County bill as well as the statewide toll road measure. But there is nothing in either measure to prevent the roads from being separated by many miles.

According to Seymour, the Orange County bill would allow construction of toll roads only when all other sources of financing from the county, state, federal government and developers had run out.

In 1984, Orange County voters rejected a ballot measure that would have increased sales taxes in the county by a half-cent to pay for transportation projects, including several new freeways. Voters in eight other counties have approved similar measures.

Seymour told the Senate that with voter sentiment running against higher taxes, the toll road concept may be the only way left to go.

‘Absolute Gridlock’

“This is a creative idea to try to bring some help to a county that’s in absolute gridlock that is beginning to . . . hurt economic growth,” he said. Reading from a list of toll bridges that already exist in California, Seymour added that the concept of transportation tolls “are not unique to California.”

Despite Seymour’s plea that senators “set aside their feelings” on toll roads, the bill sparked a highly emotional debate in which critics charged that the bill is tantamount to “highway robbery” and alien to California’s “cultural link” with its freeway system.

Calling toll roads “an inefficient and stupid way to go,” Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) said tax-supported freeways “are part of Southern California’s cultural identity.” To do away with them, he added, “is absolutely wrong for California.”

Lukewarm Endorsement

Roberti, meanwhile, warned his colleagues that the toll road bill “is something we don’t want to have to answer to the voters on. . . . It’s just not California. It’s foreign to our way of life.”

Curiously, aside from Seymour only one senator rose on the Senate floor to speak in favor of the bill. And that speech, by Sen. Waddie P. Deddeh (D-Chula Vista), was at best a lukewarm endorsement.

“It’s not the greatest idea in the world,” said Deddeh, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee. “But it’s a time of crisis. . . . These are not exactly normal times we live in.”