ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Wrong Turn on Measure M

How much flexibility does Measure M, the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in November, 1990, grant the Orange County Transportation Authority? The authority is proposing to build car-pool lanes on the Riverside Freeway median--the proposal that was sold to the voters--but also to go beyond the mandate and offer the lanes for sale to a private toll-road operator. That proposal tests the limits of Measure M.

The private toll-road operator, California Private Transportation Co. of Irvine, is already raising money to build and operate two toll lanes in each direction along the freeway’s median strip from the Riverside County line west to the Costa Mesa Freeway. Construction of the additional single lanes in each direction from the toll road’s jumping-off point at the Costa Mesa Freeway an additional four miles west to the Orange Freeway is now designated under Measure M funding. But the crucial point is that these lanes now are designed as car-pool lanes, which is what the voters thought they would be paying for.

There are some things about the authority’s proposal that make sense. Toll roads are fine, and the plan would keep more lanes along the median consistent. OCTA also argues that a sale would free public money for other projects. And it could alleviate traffic congestion sooner.

But a public-private arrangement for toll roads was not what voters had in mind when they backed Measure M. Some will say “Give them an inch and they take a mile of highway.” Others will think they have to pay twice--once in sales tax and once in tolls--for the same road. It could set a precedent for privatization of other existing car-pool lanes. There is the political question of keeping faith with voters who taxed themselves in increasingly tight times.

It seems clear that using Measure M money to jump-start private toll roads stretches the original license from the voters. And there is a question about whether the private firm is even interested, given its own reservations about recouping investment. The OCTA board should have reservations too when it takes the matter up next Monday.