Backup for Tollway Funds Unlikely, Congressmen Say : Transportation: Cox and Packard tell an Orange County delegation in Washington that Congress will not approve any plan to provide guarantees of private loans if it requires appropriating federal money.

The agency planning to build Orange County’s three privately financed toll roads cannot count on the federal government to bail it out of a credit crunch that has made it difficult to find private financing for road construction, two Orange County congressmen told local officials Thursday.

Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) told representatives of the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies that Congress will not approve any plan to provide federal backing of private bank loans for toll road construction if the plan requires an appropriation of federal funds.

“The unhappy reality is that if we need an appropriation--and it’s hard to see how that is avoided--in the current budget climate it will not be available,” Cox said. Cox and Packard, who represents South Orange County, are members of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee.

However, Cox, Packard and Orange County’s Washington lobbyist, James F. McConnell, said they anticipate that local, state and federal officials will ultimately be able to develop a loan-guarantee plan that will satisfy commercial banks without requiring the federal government to set aside specific cash reserves.

The congressmen met with corridor agency officials and Orange County businessmen, including two officials of the Irvine Co., to discuss transportation issues as Congress moves toward action on a massive overhaul of federal aid programs for highways, bridges and mass transit systems.

In addition to seeking help with toll-road financing, the Orange County delegation also asked Cox and Packard to push for inclusion of a $1-billion aid program for local transportation projects in the new highway and transit bill under consideration in Congress. They also asked for legislation that would speed the process of turning over to the public the parklands that are to be created next to the Orange County toll roads.

The three toll roads, known as the San Joaquin Hills, Foothill and Eastern corridors, are expected to cost more than $2 billion. About half of the cost will be paid with developer fees. The balance will come from grants and construction loans to be repaid later with toll revenues.

Tollway agency officials had hoped that Congress would be willing to establish a revolving line of credit that could be used to pay off bank loans for road construction should toll revenues not meet expectations in the early years of tollway operations. Creating such a fund, even if it is never used, would reassure bankers and make them more likely to lend money to build the toll roads, agency officials said.

Part of the problem, Cox said, is that privately financed toll roads are a new idea.

“We don’t have a track record,” he said. “Once one is established, commercial banks are going to be increasingly willing to lend on projects of this type.”

Wally Kreutzen, deputy director for finance of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, said one alternative plan might involve a joint program in which local and state governments provide some type of loan guarantee.

“I don’t think it’s back to the drawing board,” said McConnell, the county’s lobbyist in Washington. “We’re not wedded to any one particular solution. There are all sorts of solutions that have come up in discussions back in Orange County and here today.”

In addition to meeting with Packard and Cox, the Orange County group also talked to Rep. Robert A. Roe (D-N.J.), chairman of the House public works committee, and the group was scheduled to meet with Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose), chairman of the panel’s surface transportation subcommittee.

The public works committee is in the midst of drafting its version of a bill reauthorizing billions of dollars worth of federal aid programs for highways, bridges and mass transit systems. The Bush Administration has proposed a five-year, $105-billion program, but Mineta and Roe have said they wish to spend an additional $50 billion over the five-year period.

The visiting Orange County officials included Kreutzen and Gary L. Hausdorfer, a San Juan Capistrano city councilman who has worked extensively on the parklands issue. Also in the group were Todd B. Nicholson, president of the Industrial League of Orange County, and Gary Hunt and Hugh Fitzpatrick of the Irvine Co. Through developer fees, the Irvine Co., the county’s largest landholder, will pay a sizable share of the cost of toll road construction.