Commentary : County Is Getting What It’s Paying for in Transportation--Very Little : By BLAIR ARMSTRONG

As a way of life, trying to get something for nothing has a built-in self-destruct mechanism: Usually, you get exactly what you pay for.

Here, in Orange County, the truth of that philosophy is nowhere more evident than in our present transportation crunch and the ways we have tried to pay for the solutions.

It is true that much has been accomplished by local municipalities in cooperation with governmental agencies and developers to provide needed infrastructure, including the now-planned Eastern, Foothill and San Joaquin Hills transportation corridors.

Local government and transportation agencies have won more than a fair share of state and federal highway dollars for local use today.

In addition, the private sector has become massively involved in funding with development fees and other contributions now accounting for approximately half the dollars annually spent on Orange County’s transportation facilities.

But despite these accomplishments, some hard facts remain:

Until very recently, less than five miles of new freeway construction had been undertaken in Orange County in the last 15 years.

Originally built to accommodate a population of 1.1 million, our freeways today must serve twice that number.

According to the Orange County Transportation Commission, unless realistic funding is found over the next 20 years, a $7.7-billion shortfall is predicted in meeting Orange County’s transportation needs.

Builders’ fees, in lieu of direct taxation, merely pass along the cost of our collective life style to new businesses and homeowners, helping to drive the cost of needed new housing out of sight while at the same time failing to provide sufficient new roads.

But while jobs have increased 185% in the county since 1966, with 90% of the jobholders living within the county, and the population has increased 78%, freeway miles have increased less than 10%.

Meanwhile, available housing has increased only 119%, and, during the next 20 years, Orange County’s population is estimated to increase by 23%, with employment up by another 45%.

The fact is that the real thrust of Orange County’s growth now is coming from within, and thousands of driver’s licenses are issued annually to Orange County teen-agers who, presumably, someday may want to live, work and raise a family here.

But in lieu of public taxes to provide needed roads, highways and transit, developer fees have increasingly become the source of piecemeal funding.

This is one reason why 15% or more of the cost of many new Orange County homes is actually a de facto “road tax,” and why up to $5,400 in annual assessment fees can be paid by new homeowners.

We need communities where people can live closer to work and don’t need to drive as much.

Because we reject the responsibility of public taxation for public infrastructure, we have created a maze of closet taxes, making housing less affordable. That defeats the master-planning process in many communities, while not meeting real transportation needs.

Instead of coming to grips with the realities of controlling transportation, we try to control “growth” with proposals that are heedless of the cost.

The antagonism of voters against taxes is a natural reaction. But when we look today at an Orange County infrastructure that anticipated only half the present growing population, a picture emerges that finally demands realistic thinking and planning.

Unless we somehow solve the riddle of better regional cooperation, we will continue to face an increase in daily traffic. And just down the road is another issue with potentially explosive social implications: If we keep on adding needlessly to the cost of new homes, how can we satisfy the housing dreams of Orange County’s upwardly mobile residents, with 66% of the people who will live in the Orange County of the future already here as children?

Since we all use the roads and freeways, if we face gridlock today, aren’t we getting exactly what we’re paying for?

Eleven other counties in California have already passed local transportation sales tax measures. Today, 62% of the people in all of California live in counties with at least a one-half-cent sales tax specifically earmarked for transportation purposes.

Meanwhile, Orange County is surrounded by three counties whose residents have passed a one-half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements. In recent surveys, most residents agreed that this would be a fair way to do that.

The numbers speak eloquently: Despite all our efforts, there will be a $20-billion shortfall for transportation in California over the next decade, with almost an $8-billion deficit in Orange County over the next 20 years.

Isn’t it time that we in Orange County recognize that so many of the quick-fix measures we’ve applied to the “growth problem” have utterly failed, while at the same time fueling the problems of transportation and housing costs?

Today, we have an unprecedented opportunity to take a first step toward realistic transportation funding. Gov. George Deukmejian has just signed into law a statewide transportation-funding bill that will provide $18 billion over the next decade. To go into effect, it must be ratified by voters next June. The need is clear, and California residents should approve it.

Builders’ fees will continue to pay a fair share. But because this statewide funding will not cover all the costs, a half-cent sales tax also should be approved by Orange County voters this November for local roads, highways and transit needs. We can either pay for what we need to get the job done or we can go on shortchanging ourselves and continue to live with our overcrowded roads and highways. We can’t make the choice painless. But we can make it smart.