IRVINE : Traffic Sales Tax Urged at Forum

Norm Grossman, a leader of last year’s unsuccessful slow-growth ballot measure, Thursday urged the public to support Measure M, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase that would fund local road improvements.

Grossman, first vice president of the Orange County Foundation for Consensus in Transportation, made his comments before about 50 people at a noon luncheon in Irvine.

“The numbers on the cost of transportation are overwhelming,” Grossman said. “The money just flat out isn’t there.”

The sales tax measure will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Grossman and Keith McKean, head of the Orange County Caltrans office, discussed the current and long-term needs facing the county’s crowded highway system, based on recommendations from a recently published report by the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

The discussion was sponsored by Town Hall of California, a group that organizes public forums.

Some of the proposed improvements that could come from additional funds include widening the Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Riverside and San Diego freeways at key areas, extending others and modernizing interchanges on older thoroughfares.

McKean also pointed to a number of new approaches that the state Department of Transportation is taking to better manage traffic, including computerized surveys and discussions with private firms interested in working on highway improvements.

“At less cost and with better cooperation, we can lessen the congestion on the freeways,” McKean said. “We have some real opportunities ahead of us.”

Although the estimated $3.5 billion that Measure M would generate would fall far short of financing the improvements, the state could offer additional funding under its policy of helping counties that attempt to help themselves, McKean said.

A few people attending the meeting argued that efforts should focus on alternatives to the current one-person, one-car phenomenon.

“More freeways build more traffic,” said Robert Siebert, 52, of Orange. Siebert suggested that those who drive should pay more for gasoline to pay for road improvements instead of a sales-tax increase for all county residents.

Planners say a gasoline tax of at least 20 cents per gallon would be needed to bring in the necessary funds.