Assembly Switches Again, OKs Toll Road Measure

SACRAMENTO — Reversing itself for the second time in a month, the Assembly on Friday approved controversial legislation that would allow Orange County to build toll roads to bypass two of the traffic-choked county’s most congested corridors.

The bill, by Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach), was approved on a 42-35 vote and sent to the Senate, which has already approved similar legislation authored by another Orange County lawmaker.

Both bills would make Orange County the testing ground for the idea of supplementing tax-financed freeways--a California tradition--with Eastern-style turnpikes.

Frizzelle’s bill would allow the county, a joint powers agency or a county-designated private corporation to build and operate the toll roads, which would be designed to carry motorists through large sections of the county without using local highways.

Heavily Used

The bill would allow toll roads to be built bypassing sections of the heavily used Riverside Freeway and either the Santa Ana or the San Diego freeways.

Current law allows the California Transportation Department, but not local governments, to build toll roads. No public toll roads exist in the state, although there are 10 publicly owned toll bridges in California.

Orange County officials say they desperately need the roads but have no means to pay their $1-billion price tag. They said that thousands of acres of vacant land in the southern and eastern parts of the county cannot be developed without the new roads.

“This bill does not convert any other highways to toll roads,” Frizzelle said. “It does give the local county the option of how they can get roads done immediately in their area to relieve congestion. When the toll roads go in approximately the same direction as the freeway, the public can choose whether they want to drive on the freeways or use a toll road.”

Opponents of toll roads have argued that their construction would be “un-Californian” and bad for both business and commuters. Some legislators have said an increase in the state gasoline tax would be a better way to pay for new roads.

Changed Minds

Over those objections, the Assembly last month approved a bill by Frizzelle to allow any California county to build toll roads. Then on June 18, with several Democrats saying that they had changed their minds, the Assembly rejected on a 41-30 vote Frizzelle’s more limited measure to allow Orange County or its designee to build the roads.

Frizzelle then amended his bill to require that the Orange County roads be built by workers paid prevailing wage rates, a change insisted upon by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). Brown voted for the measure when it was reconsidered early Friday morning as the Assembly neared the end of a marathon session that began Thursday.

Another key Democrat, Assemblyman Richard Katz of Sepulveda, chairman of the Transportation Committee, also reversed his position and voted for Frizzelle’s bill. Katz, who said after his first vote against the bill that he was “rethinking toll roads,” said he supports the philosophy and is now satisfied that Frizzelle’s bill is a good one.

Similar Measure

Frizzelle, who won Assembly approval for a similar bill a year ago only to see it die in the Senate, said he believes that his legislation will fare better in the upper house this year. The Senate has already approved a bill by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) that also gives Orange County or a joint powers agency, made up of the county and several cities, the authority to build toll roads.

Seymour said Friday that Assembly approval of Frizzelle’s measure was “a very positive development.” He said he would meet with Frizzelle to try to reconcile the differences between the two bills.

“I just want to give local transportation interests one more tool in their kit,” Seymour said.