Seymour Vows to Fight Waters : L.A. Legislator Snarls Funds for Toll Roads

More than $1.6 million earmarked for Caltrans to help plan and build three Orange County toll roads was held out of the state budget Friday after a powerful Los Angeles lawmaker said she didn’t think taxpayers should help pay for “private” roads.

Objections by Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) to the Caltrans appropriation prompted her colleagues on a legislative budget conference committee to balk at approving the expenditure Friday. And her continued opposition could spell trouble for the measure next week, when the panel is scheduled to take it up once again.

Exchange With Seymour

Waters’ qualms led to a harsh exchange with state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), another budget committee member and chief architect of the funding for the toll roads.

After the meeting, a flushed Seymour accused Waters of holding the toll roads “hostage,” perhaps as a bargaining chip to further her own political agenda.

“I’ll get that money out of (the budget committee) if I have to kill every damn project she’s interested in,” Seymour fumed. “If she thinks she’s going to leverage me for one of her pet interests, she’s crazier than a hooty-owl. She’s nuts!”

Waters, who did not return telephone calls after the budget meeting, told her colleagues during their deliberations Friday morning that she is opposed to using state money for Orange County’s toll roads.

“If they (Orange County residents) want to build the roads, they should reimburse us for any work they’re going to do for it,” she said.

“Well, then change the law,” answered Seymour, who has maintained that the state should help pay because the roads must be built to state Department of Transportation specifications and will revert to public ownership after construction bonds are paid off by toll users.

The $1.6 million at stake is state money that would pay Caltrans personnel to ensure that private planning and construction of the toll roads--in all, 65 miles of pavement along three Orange County corridors--meet state specifications for grading, engineering, interchange design and thickness of concrete, among other concerns. The supervision is necessary if the state is to accept the thoroughfares after they are paid off, Seymour said.

All three toll roads are in the preliminary design stage, with the first construction likely to begin in late 1990 for 7.6 miles in the proposed Foothill Corridor that would run roughly parallel to Interstate 5 along the foothills of eastern Orange County. The first stretch of roadway would start at Sand Canyon Avenue and end at Portola Parkway, according to Donna Stubbs, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridors Agencies. Construction costs of the three toll roads is now estimated at more than $2 billion.

Won’t Halt Construction

Stubbs said Friday that loss of the $1.6 million in state funding would not stop construction of the roads.

Until recently, Stubbs said, Caltrans had eight engineers working out of the agency’s office to help with the planning for environmental impact statements. But the agency cut that number to three, and may eliminate all on-site workers if the $1.6 million is cut from the budget.

Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago said the number of engineers was scaled back because the TCA is waiting for the Irvine Co. to dedicate 5,300 acres in Limestone Canyon as open space, a condition put on the construction of two toll roads by the Legislature last year.

The plan for the toll roads hit another snag last month when state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) urged that money requested for the Caltrans supervision, particularly of the San Joaquin Hills route, be left out of the budget.

Instead, Roberti--an adamant opponent of toll roads--suggested that the Orange County toll road authorities reimburse the state for its Caltrans expense.

Withdrew Request

But Roberti withdrew his request and Seymour said the Senate leader had promised not to block the state funding of Caltrans involvement with the toll road. Everything seemed to be going forward smoothly until Friday, when the matter reached the conference committee, a panel of senators and Assembly members appointed to put the finishing touches on the state budget before it is sent to the governor.

Waters objected to the state funding, and Seymour reacted angrily.

“Sen. Roberti no longer has a problem here and I think Ms. Waters has some other agenda going, and I would just like to know what it is,” he said.

“Sen. Roberti is not on this conference committee and I am and you better try to satisfy my concerns,” Waters retorted. “We’re putting money into private toll roads and I don’t like it.”