M’s Loss Means Jammed Roads, Planners Say

Orange County commuters face at least 10 years or more of jammed freeways now that voters have rejected a sales tax increase, putting the brakes on an ambitious, $3.1-billion, 20-year plan to widen and improve highways and speed commuters by train, transportation planners say.

Political activists blamed the defeat of Measure M, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase for transportation, on Orange County’s notorious antipathy for taxes, Gov. George Deukmejian’s decision to sign a quarter-cent sales tax hike for earthquake relief the day before the Measure M vote, and an inability to get voters previously identified as supporters into polling booths.

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am,” Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley said Wednesday. “We failed to educate the public on what Measure M was all about. . . . It was a terrible setback.”

Measure M was decisively defeated--53% to 47%--in Tuesday’s countywide election. Had it passed, the countywide sales tax would have increased from 6 1/4 cents to 6 3/4 cents on Jan. 1, 1990.

The county can still seek existing state and federal funds for transportation projects, but state and county officials say there will be increased competition for such money. Moreover, those funds would do little more than offset a small fraction of the traffic increase projected over the next 20 years.

And state and county transportation officials say they are concerned that California voters next June will reject a proposed 9-cent increase in the state gasoline tax--to be phased in over four years.

“We’re in serious trouble,” said Keith McKean, director of the Caltrans district in Orange County. “There will be no funds available for new construction projects. . . . By early next year, perhaps in January, February or March, we will have committed all of the cash available for new construction.

“We will have to decide how much maintenance to defer, we will cut back on consultant contracts, cut back on preventive maintenance, and then we’ll have to decide how many people to lay off,” he said.

Some of the projects that will have to be deferred include the Santa Ana Freeway widening project north of the Costa Mesa Freeway at a cost exceeding $1 billion, plans for widening and car-pool lanes on the Riverside and Orange freeways totaling $440 million, and a $55-million reconstruction of the interchange of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways in Irvine.

“I would say that anything where a contract has been awarded is safe,” said former County Supervisor Bruce Nestande, chairman of the failed campaign for Measure M who also serves as a member of the California Transportation Commission. “Anything else is up for grabs.”

Nestande said he was hopeful that the proposed increase in the state gasoline tax would pass, but noted that Orange County’s share of those dollars would be far below what Measure M would have generated.

“If the state ballot proposition doesn’t pass, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Nestande said.

Many of the projects to be paid for under Measure M are not included in the state’s five-year plan for transportation improvements. The proposed $400-million widening of the Riverside Freeway is one. The state also has not earmarked money for completion of the Santa Ana Freeway widening project. Only the segment between Irvine and Santa Ana is fully financed.

“Beyond that there is nothing,” Nestande said, adding, “The state may have drawn down its reserves because of the earthquake, and it may change priorities and go into heavy rehabilitation and retrofitting of existing structures.”

The $12-billion state program itself has a $3.5-billion deficit, Nestande said.

Still, not all highway construction will cease. The Costa Mesa Freeway extension to 19th Street in Costa Mesa will be completed because the work is already under way. The widening of the Santa Ana Freeway between Irvine and Santa Ana will also continue.

Also coming is a $2-billion network of three planned tollways in eastern and southern Orange County--partly financed with developer fees--that should be built in the mid 1990s. Design work and grading are already under way. Also in the works is the $230-million Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan, in which developers put their land up as collateral for road construction bonds.

Another transportation project not dependent on Measure M is the so-called “super street” program for Beach Boulevard, which involves installation of bus turnout pockets, signal synchronization and other improvements. But county and city officials said the bulk of the $395 million a year budgeted by cities and the county for street projects will be used to maintain the status quo.

Riley said Wednesday that he was undecided about whether to return to voters, possibly next November, to convince them of the merits of the 20-year plan, or scrap it altogether.

Orange County Transportation Commissioner Dana W. Reed said he would be ready to begin drawing up a new plan next week.

“We have to start over again and make another attempt to solve this problem,” Reed said. “We can’t take the attitude of ‘to hell with them’ because that’s very bad public policy.”

Alan Hoffenblum, the Los Angeles-based political consultant who ran the Measure M campaign, said the final results were not all that bad.

“They got 48% of the vote with only 20% turnout,” Hoffenblum said. (Measure M actually got 47% of the vote with a 22% turnout at the polls.) “I think they should make another attempt next year, when they’ll have a higher turnout,” he said, referring to next year’s gubernatorial election.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who also sits on the County Transportation Commission, agreed that another try is possible. But first, she said, the commission must do a lot of “soul-searching.”

“We have to evaluate it (the defeat),” she said. “The question I would ask people is, ‘What is the alternative?’ ”

THREATENED PROJECTS

Numerous transportation projects that were to be funded with the proceeds of Measure M, a half-cent sales tax increase that was defeated decisively Tuesday, are now on hold for lack of funding. They include:

The $55-million reconstruction of the Santa Ana-San Diego freeway interchange in Irvine.

Creation of a 220-mile network of super streets at a cost of $120 million.

The completion of the Santa Ana Freeway widening project north of the Costa Mesa Freeway at a cost exceeding $1 billion.

The planned widening of the Riverside and Orange freeways to include new car-pool lanes, sound walls and new freeway-to-freeway interchanges at a combined cost of about $440 million.

Establishment of commuter rail service from Riverside to Irvine, estimated to cost $65 million to start and $25 million to sustain operations for 20 years.

Hundreds of individual street widening and maintenance projects, countywide, estimated to cost $450 million.

The $200-million addition of two new general-purpose lanes to the Costa Mesa Freeway, north of the Santa Ana Freeway, for a distance of six miles.

The addition of a car-pool lane in each direction on Interstate 5 between Irvine and San Clemente at a cost of $80 million.

Source: State and county officials