Assembly Supports Bill to Give Sandag Control of Coronado Bridge Toll

The Assembly approved a bill Tuesday giving local governments in San Diego the option to continue the toll on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge beyond its current 1995 expiration date.

The lower chamber voted 54-19 to approve a bill by Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego) taking any decision about extending the $1-per-car toll away from the California Transportation Commission and giving it to the San Diego Assn. of Governments, or Sandag.

The toll on the bridge, which links Coronado with downtown San Diego, is scheduled to expire June 30, 1995.

Commuters are paying about $6 million a year to use the bridge, which is the only state-owned toll thoroughfare for which construction bonds have been paid off. Excess revenues are now accumulating into a special fund earmarked for bridge upkeep and traffic improvements in Coronado.

Killea’s bill, sponsored at the request of the city of Coronado, would turn over control of the bridge to Sandag, which could then vote to perpetuate and even raise tolls from $1 to $1.50 after holding a series of public hearings.

Even without the 50-cent increase, Sandag could realize an extra $3.4 million a year after 1995, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill.

The Killea measure would require Sandag to use the money only for traffic congestion relief--additional buses or enhanced ferry service--along the bridge corridor.

Last year, Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a similar bill by Killea that would have given control of the bridge to the Metropolitan Transit Development Board. At that time, Wilson said he would support legislation giving the responsibility to Sandag instead.

The measure now goes back to the Senate, which must concur in amendments before the bill is sent to Wilson.

An urgency clause added to the Killea measure would allow Sandag to use part of the current toll revenues to help meet state and clean-air mandates.