For Whom the Road Tolls

By Eddie Rose

If you don't want the proposed commercial airport at El Toro, you should also oppose the proposed extension of the Foothill-South toll road, since the two are interrelated.

A quick glance at a current Transportation Corridors Agency (TCA) map provides the best illustration. Both the southern terminus of the Eastern Corridor toll road (east leg) and the northern terminus of the Foothill Corridor toll road conveniently converge at El Toro, thus providing easy access to the proposed commercial airport from such areas as Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda, and Corona to the northeast, as well as San Clemente, Oceanside, and Carlsbad to the south.

With a projection of some 20 to 30 million airline passengers annually, it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that the existing freeway system in South Orange County is incapable of handling such capacity. Gridlock, in and around the infamous El Toro 'Y', is the inevitable consequence.

While the TCA trumpets itself as being "financed primarily by the private sector", the inescapable fact remains that the TCA governing boards consist almost exclusively of local (city and county) elected officials. And while many of these same elected officials claim to be opposed to a commercial airport at El Toro, the vast majority of them owe their very council and board seats to major developers and other special interests intent on ramming a commercial airport down the throats of South Orange County residents.

In reality, completion of the toll road network in South Orange County has nothing to do with easing traffic congestion. It's about subsidizing future development---including a commercial airport at El Toro! And it's the taxpayers who will foot the bill.

Contrary to TCA doublespeak, only approximately 20 percent of the cost of financing the toll roads will come from developer fees. And even that amount will be passed on to unsuspecting homebuyers as a cost of doing business.

Webster's dictionary defines "toll" as "the cost in loss or suffering at which something is achieved". What will be lost to South Orange County residents is our quality of life.

What will be achieved is more money in the pockets of special interests, more bloated salaries and outrageous perks for unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, and more campaign dollars in the coffers of inept and/or corrupt elected officials.