Senate Passes Seymour’s Toll Road Bills : Foe Claims Measures Are Subsidizing ‘Wealthy’ Orange County

Turning aside criticism that the rest of California would be subsidizing “wealthy” Orange County, the state Senate on Thursday approved two bills that would move the county’s proposed toll roads a step closer to construction.

The two measures, authored by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), were approved on identical 23-10 votes and sent to the Assembly.

The bills would designate two proposed toll routes as state highways, which means the state would pick up the cost of maintaining the highways if they are built as planned with a combination of toll revenues, developer fees and federal funds.

One of the bills designates the Eastern Transportation Corridor, which would run from the Riverside Freeway in Yorba Linda to the Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine, as California Route 231. The other would name the Foothill Corridor, from the Eastern route near Irvine to Interstate 5 near San Clemente, as California Route 241.

The two highways are scheduled for construction in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Seymour last week in a Senate committee fought off proposed amendments from Bay Area senators who wanted the state to pay for the maintenance of existing toll bridges. On Thursday, Seymour faced much of the same rhetoric, though it was clear from the start that he had sufficient votes to win passage of the bills.

Seymour’s chief antagonist, Sen. Barry Keene (D-Benicia), argued that Orange County, by financing highways with tolls and then turning them over to the state to maintain, was bypassing the normal highway-construction schedule and thus gaining an advantage over other, poorer communities unable or unwilling to pay tolls.

“This is bad news for everyone on this floor who is not from Orange County,” Keene said. “The policy is that wealthy communities throughout California can use tolls to build freeways and then you will have to maintain those toll roads for those wealthy communities.

“Is that the new policy in California, that highways are to be distributed on the basis of the ability of people to pay for those toll roads?” Keene asked. “That’s what is involved here.”

But Seymour countered that the county’s method amounted to a gift to the state because county motorists, through tolls, and home buyers, through developer fees, would be paying the cost of road construction normally shared by all the state’s taxpayers. It would be unjust to also ask county motorists to pay for maintenance with tolls.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Seymour said. “We pay our fair share of the gas tax, and that’s what is used to maintain the highways in this state.”

Sen. Edward Davis (R-Valencia) supported the measure after saying that he “utterly detested” toll roads. He said his vote was a gesture of support to Seymour, who, Davis said, was working to improve traffic conditions in a county where the residents may be “wealthy but they’re poor on roads.”

Davis’ statement provoked a threat from Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), who suggested that senators consider the policy Seymour was advocating, not the amount of work he was putting into the bill.

“I’ve thought of 23 things that will benefit my district and take money out of yours, and you’re going to see them next year,” Lockyer said. “I can at least get them downstairs (to the governor’s office), and you can try to stop them there if you can.”