Mission Viejo Council Approves OCTA Tax
by Dale Tyler

On May 15, 2006, the Mission Viejo City Council approved on a 4-1 vote (MacLean, Kelley, Ury and Reavis for; Ledesma against) a 30-year half-cent sales tax proposal made by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). The new tax, currently scheduled to be on the November 2006 ballot, is intended to raise funds for OCTA operations and various road, freeway and transit projects. The final text of the proposed law, presently known as the “Measure M Extension” was not available when our city council voted to support the new tax. Yet, four supposedly fiscally conservative council members voted to impose a new tax on Mission Viejo residents without even having a final document specifying how the tax was to be spent.

In 1990, after a couple of failed attempts, Orange County voters approved a temporary, 20-year, half-cent sales tax that was to be used to relieve congestion on Orange County roads and freeways. Unfortunately, OCTA had different ideas than most Orange County residents about what they should do to relieve congestion. They built carpool lanes and tried to build a light-rail system called “Centerline” that would have actually made traffic worse in the area in which it was scheduled to be constructed according to their own studies. This same agency is asking city councils around the county to approve its new plan to spend more than $11 billion from 2010 to 2040. Why should we believe OCTA would do a better job than they have done over the past 16 years?

OCTA continues to plan for too much transit and, despite the overwhelming rejection of the Centerline boondoggle, they include almost $1.3 billion for new “high-tech transit,” which are code words for light rail in their new proposal. At the April 24 OCTA meeting, the OC Business Council presented a gushing report that was, of course, in favor of the new tax. Part of that presentation, as I understand it, contained references to a replacement for Centerline. OCTA still has not learned their lesson.

Less than 1 percent of the person-miles per day are carried in Orange County by bus and Metrolink. Yet, OCTA insists on allocating about 25 percent to transit. This is far too high. A better number might be 5 percent, solely for buses. Arguably, the bus service serves some of those who have no cars, but very few people in south Orange County can use the buses because of the poorly designed and constantly changing routes. Metrolink, on the other hand, is used by people who average $70K in household income. We subsidize Metrolink operations and capital costs for people who make enough money to pay the entire cost themselves. Why should we pay for part of the ticket for someone who chooses to work in L.A.?

Finally, OCTA make much of their freeway improvements. Yet, most of the total lane miles built since 1990 have been exclusive carpool lanes, one of the most widely hated inventions of bureaucrats since taxes. Study after study shows that carpool lanes increase congestion and would be better used as general purpose lanes at all times. While OCTA will tell you this is a federal mandate, when you ask the federal government, they deny that they mandate carpool lanes to be eligible for federal matching funding. Ask the OCTA to provide you the name of a person in a federal agency who will point to the provision in law that requires carpool lanes. They can’t do it. These lanes are another example of social engineering by OCTA, just like Centerline. Also, much of the money for carpool lanes was spent on the almost unused flying ramps that allow carpools only to go from the carpool lanes on one freeway to another, such as the 55 and 405 interchange. These ramps cost much more per person-mile carried than regular ramps would, which begs the question, why build expensive ramps for only a few drivers? The answer, according to OCTA, is to reduce congestion. However, additional general purpose ramp lanes would do this job far more effectively.

The OCTA is putting signs up around Mission Viejo, including on Crown Valley, saying “Paid for by Measure M.” Yet, on Crown Valley, they are paying only $300,000 of over $9 million in cost. Of that $300,000, more than $100,000 was used to buy the signs and have a nice ceremony for our city council.

Over the coming months, leading up to the November elections, we will be publishing more information on why the new half-cent sales tax is a bad idea and presenting some new ideas about how to pay for and manage transportation on Orange County.