Toll Road Limits Earn Davis Veto

A bill that would have made it more difficult for California to enter agreements with private companies to operate toll roads like the 91 Express Lanes has been vetoed by Gov. Gray Davis.

“Unfortunately, such a measure would eliminate any opportunity for future public-private partnerships . . . to meet the state’s anticipated population growth over the next 20 years,” the governor wrote as he announced his veto Wednesday of AB-1091.

The bill by Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside) would have banned agreements with “no competition” clauses barring the state from adding free lanes near privately operated toll roads. Pacheco and others argue that this restriction in the agreement with the operator of the 91 Express Lanes has prevented Caltrans from improving the segment of the Riverside Freeway parallel to the toll lanes, which link Orange and Riverside counties. As a result, they say, congestion in the free lanes has become a major problem.

Speaking of Davis on Thursday, Pacheco said, “Clearly, he cares little or nothing about the citizens of Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties. This veto is patently ridiculous. He’s done nothing to solve this problem, other than veto and delay any attempts to solve it.”

Greg Hulsizer, general manager of California Private Transportation Co., which operates the 10-mile toll road from the Costa Mesa Freeway to the Orange-Riverside county line, disagreed. The governor’s veto, he said, “was the right thing to do. The future of transportation in California, we believe, is going to rely heavily on partnerships between the public and private sectors. AB-1091 would have absolutely sent the wrong message.”

Completed in 1995, the 91 Express Lanes run along the median of the Riverside Freeway. The builders then said the toll road was the first in more than 40 years in the United States to be built with private financing, and the first in the world to be fully automated. Pacheco’s bill also would have prevented it from being extended further into Riverside County.

“It’s frustrating,” the assemblyman said Thursday. Although the governor vetoed another of his bills pertaining to the toll road last year, Pacheco said he has not given up. “Maybe we have to have a governor who cares about the situation,” he said. “I’m going to keep on pushing.”