Assembly Committee OKs Toll Road Bill

Urged to think of toll roads as “a bridge” over Orange County’s freeway congestion, a key Assembly committee approved legislation Wednesday that would open the door for construction of the first modern turnpikes in California.

The bill, by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), was approved by the Assembly Transportation Committee on a bipartisan 8-4 vote and sent to the full Assembly, which has already approved similar legislation.

Seymour’s bill, approved by the Senate June 11, would allow two agencies formed by Orange County and 10 cities to build as many as three toll roads bypassing the county’s most congested traffic corridors.

The bill requires that tolls be used only after all other financing options are exhausted.

Under Seymour’s measure, the toll roads could run roughly parallel to the San Diego, Santa Ana or Riverside freeways, though not necessarily nearby. Upon repayment of bonds sold to finance the roads, the tolls would be removed and the highways turned over to the state, Seymour said.

Under current law, only the state Transportation Department is allowed to build public toll roads in California, and none has ever been constructed. The state does operate 10 toll bridges, most of them spanning San Francisco Bay or nearby waterways.

Confrontation With Lobbyist

Seymour’s bill was approved after a sharp confrontation between Seymour and Bill Halloran, a lobbyist for the Automobile Club of Southern California, which opposes the bill.

Halloran said the auto club fears that allowing toll roads in Orange County would set a precedent that could lead to their construction throughout the state.

“You’re not really solving a highway problem,” Halloran said, adding that tolls would be “regressive in nature” and that fast-moving turnpikes built parallel to congested freeways would be elitist. “Right now this creates more problems than it solves.”

Seymour called Halloran’s reasoning “garbage” and insisted that his bill was narrowly drawn.

“We’re talking about a county that’s in gridlock, we’re talking about roads that run parallel to permit alternative use, we’re talking about a toll that is totally restricted to pay for construction only, and the automobile club has the audacity in representing its members . . . to oppose it? You’re a disgrace, sir.”

Seymour also clashed with Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos), a critic of toll roads who faults Gov. George Deukmejian for failing to support an increase in the nine-cent-per-gallon state gasoline tax. The gas tax has traditionally provided much of the funding for state highway construction.

‘Great System in Place’

Areias said toll roads would be “archaic and un-Californian” and suggested Orange County either raise its sales tax to pay for new roads or convince the governor to agree to an increase in the gasoline tax.

“We’ve got a great system in place, one that’s served us well,” Areias said. “All we’ve got to do is adequately fund it.”

But Seymour said Areias was trying to “punish” Orange County for its failure to approve a sales tax increase.

“Everybody in Orange County supports this bill,” he shouted. “Why don’t you let this county free?”

Seymour and his supporters on the committee compared the proposed toll roads to the bridges that cross San Francisco Bay, providing quick access into a city that otherwise could only be reached by ferry or by a circuitous route around the bay.

“Think of it as a bridge over a portion of Orange County,” said Assemblyman Robert C. Frazee (R-Carlsbad).

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) said Orange County is “one of the golden geese that lays the golden eggs in this state.”

“If we continue in the gridlock pattern this whole state’s economy is going to suffer,” he said.