DeVore offers alteration to Gov.’s bond proposals

Trucks-only tollway would be financed privately, avoiding any tax hikes, under assemblyman’s plan.Anticipating Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to build toll lanes for trucks on some existing highways, Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore on Thursday came out with his own proposal for a trucks-only toll road from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to the Inland Empire.

The biggest difference in DeVore’s proposal is that it would be funded with private money; the governor’s toll lanes would be part of a multibillion-dollar bond. The bonds would be repaid with taxpayer dollars, and some fear they could result in a tax hike.

Schwarzenegger revealed his bond plan in Thursday’s State of the State address. It would include a total of $222 billion over 10 years to improve roads -- including new toll lanes for cars and in some cases trucks -- as well as levees, schools, jails and courts. Just $68 billion of the total is new bond debt.

Regarding the truck lanes, DeVore proposed an alternative: State officials would determine the route of a trucks-only toll road and secure the environmental permits, then auction off the right to build the road and then operate it, probably for about 30 years.

The road would likely be about 50 to 60 miles long, starting from the ports and following the Long Beach Freeway (710) to its junction with the San Diego Freeway (405), and then possibly turning east.

The main benefit to Orange County drivers would likely be in getting trucks off the 405 and the 91 freeways. DeVore expects it to cost between $30 billion and $50 billion, but taxpayers wouldn’t foot the bill -- the winning private-sector bidder would.

“You’re letting the market build it and market forces will then determine if it will be successful and how much will be charged to pay off the debt,” DeVore said.

A similar plan was used successfully in Texas, DeVore said, and it wouldn’t be at odds with what the governor is proposing.

“It’s completely compatible. The issue is what sort of consensus can we get for doing something different,” DeVore said.

He also thinks levees don’t have to be paid for with bonds but could perhaps be funded through special tax assessment districts.

DeVore’s divergence from the governor on the bond proposal indicates it maybe a tough sell with Republican legislators. To move the bond package forward, Schwarzenegger will need six GOP votes in the Assembly and two in the Senate for the required two-thirds majority -- and DeVore isn’t sure the votes are there.

UC Irvine political scientist Louis DeSipio was more optimistic. The governor is focusing on popular initiatives such as roads and schools with the bond issue. Moderate Republicans may be convinced to go along, he said.

“It’ll be a big compromise,” DeSipio said. “You build enough support among people who are willing to put up with the bill because it has something they really want.”

But to DeVore, Republican reluctance on the bond issue may be a sign of conflicts to come in 2006.

“To the degree that the governor kind of reads the results of the [November 2005] special election as a repudiation of conservative values and tries to go to the left, ... I think you’re going to see the Republicans in the legislature increasingly less willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” DeVore said.