Toll Roads a Mistake, Roberti Says

SACRAMENTO — Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), lamenting the passage last year of legislation allowing construction of toll roads in Orange County, said Tuesday that he will attempt to block any such bills in the future.

In unusually candid remarks before a group of newspaper editors, the Senate leader said he should have tried harder at the end of the last session to kill the bill.

“The last thing I would like to do is encourage (toll roads) any more than we have,” he said. “I should have fought that more vigorously than I did. . . . That one slipped by. It’s just not the way to go.”

15-Mile Toll Road

The measure, signed into law by Gov. George Deukmejian, will allow transportation agencies to construct a 15-mile toll road pilot project from Irvine to San Juan Capistrano through the hills west of the San Diego Freeway.

Many officials see it as a first step toward the use of toll roads in other traffic-congested parts of the state.

In fact, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who followed Roberti to the podium, said he would favor creating additional toll roads to help solve mounting transportation problems.

“It seems to me there are some roads that can and should be designed so as to allow for tolls,” the Speaker said.

Earlier, Brown held a press conference to release a transportation study prepared by the Assembly Office of Research that included construction of toll roads as one of a variety of proposals to avoid gridlock in urban areas by the year 2000.

The Democratic-sponsored analysis predicted that the average speed of traffic on state highways would decline from the present 37 m.p.h. to 17 m.p.h. during the next 12 years.

The study also estimated that it would cost $50 billion to solve the state’s transportation problems, and called for an increase in the gasoline tax as well as evaluating existing highways to see which are suitable for toll roads.

Roberti, at odds with his Democratic colleague, said he may even attempt to block authorization for the Orange County pilot project if additional legislation is needed to proceed with construction.

Opposes Prisoner Plan

Roberti also said he will oppose Deukmejian’s proposal to put prison inmates to work at jobs now filled by state employees.

“I feel strongly about it,” Roberti said. “You wouldn’t want prison labor competing with your job and taking your job away from you, and the same goes for working people. I’m all for holding prison costs down, but not at the expense of the working men and women of California.”

Deukmejian, who has backed unsuccessful proposals to put prison inmates to work on profit-making ventures, said last week that he will sponsor an initiative, if necessary, to enact his plan.