State Probe Into Now-Aborted Sale of 91 Express Lanes Called ‘Moot’

The state attorney general’s office has effectively abandoned its investigation into last year’s planned sale of the 91 Express Lanes but may yet join a legal attack on the controversial private toll lanes.

A spokesperson for California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said Wednesday that the investigation is now considered “moot” because the deal was aborted. Even if there had been some wrongdoing in the sale, it would have been a difficult case to prosecute since the private lanes were never sold. The case, however, has not been officially closed.

The investigation was opened to determine whether the buyer and the seller of the 10-mile tollway had too close a relationship and whether the $274-million sale price was fair. Critics of the toll lanes, particularly Riverside County officials, charged that the two parties were conspiring to raise toll prices excessively.

The announced investigation was just one of a series of occurrences that eventually led the 91 Express Lanes’ owner, California Private Transportation Co., to table the sale. The company had planned to sell its operation to a nonprofit corporation, NewTrac, which, in turn, had planned to use tax-free state bonds to finance the purchase.

News of Lockyer’s statement cheered operators of the 91 Express Lanes on Wednesday.

“If what is being said is true, then it wouldn’t surprise me,” said Greg Hulsizer, general manager of the tollway. “We’ve always said the NewTrac transaction was above board. This certainly discredits our detractors.”

The lanes’ owner is not yet out of the legal woods. A lawsuit filed by Riverside County charges that the California Department of Transportation broke the law and violated the public trust when it granted the private firm the right to build its toll lanes on the median of the clogged Riverside Freeway. Riverside County officials, hoping to void the tollway’s franchise agreement, have appealed to Lockyer to join the suit.

As a state legislator, Lockyer battled hard against legislation that allowed the creation of the 91 Express Lanes as well as three other private tollways. Only the 91 Express Lanes are currently in operation.

“In my own opinion, I strongly oppose toll roads,” Lockyer said Tuesday during an unrelated Orange County court appearance. “I’m an advocate for public freeways. To me, these toll roads are, in effect, nothing more than highway robbery. . . . But I cannot say this as the attorney general.”

Lockyer said he has asked his staff to review the lawsuit.

Hulsizer has criticized the suit as being politically motivated and says Riverside County officials are trying to atone for their inability to bring jobs to their county. Many of the motorists who use the 91 Express Lanes, as well as the public lanes of the Riverside Freeway, live in Riverside County, where housing is relatively inexpensive, and work in Orange and Los Angeles counties.