Panel: Build 'Early Action' projects on time

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
Short on TransNet cash, SANDAG officials ponder priorities | Friday, January 18, 2008 11:31 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO -- The agency building highways and railways with the sales-tax county residents voted for in 2004 now says the measure won't generate enough money to build the TransNet program's 47 projects.

The half-penny TransNet sales tax is forecast to generate $14 billion between now and 2048, but San Diego Association of Governments officials said Friday that $1.2 billion more will be needed.

Gary Gallegos, the association's executive director, said the agency expects to run short in the measure's later years because construction costs have risen, sales-tax collections are in decline and borrowing will be required to accelerate construction to deliver some projects by the middle of next decade.

One of those early-bird projects is the long-delayed $250 million widening of North County's Highway 76 between Oceanside and Interstate 15. It was originally supposed to be completed during the first round of TransNet, which ends this March. But the agency ran out of money to deliver on that particular promise. Now the agency says the project will arrive no later than 2014.

In 2004, San Diego County residents agreed to extend the tax beyond the original April 1, 2008, expiration date.

In presenting the long-range forecast to the association's transportation committee last month, officials suggested saving money by delaying completion of the San Diego Trolley light-rail line between Old Town and University Towne Center from 2014 to 2020. That, Gallegos said, would have saved significantly on borrowing costs. Like the Highway 76 widening, the $1.2 billion Trolley expansion is one of the accelerated projects the agency had committed to finishing by the middle of next decade through a package called the "Early Action Program."

The option of delaying the rail project was unacceptable to the committee in December.

The staff came back Friday with other options: Delay other projects while carrying the Trolley forward, delay all of the early projects, or keep all of the projects on schedule and work to fill the gap later.

The panel opted to keep every highway, rail and bus project on schedule.

But in doing so, Santee Councilman Jack Dale reminded colleagues that they were committing themselves to "a mission to find additional dollars."

And Del Mar Mayor Dave Druker, representing coastal North County on the panel, warned that if the mission fails, the agency will have to leave other projects behind in the second go-round of TransNet.

Besides the Early Action Program, TransNet proposes to fund a slew of other projects. Those include popular North County projects such as car-pool lanes on Highway 78 between Oceanside and Escondido and widening of Interstate 5.

The discussion was prompted by the need to adopt a TransNet financing plan as the agency prepares to sell $600 million in bonds this April to jump-start the 40-year campaign to make traveling around the county a little easier.

The panel was persuaded to stay the course by John Meyer of Escondido, chairman of a regional watchdog group that oversees TransNet spending. The TransNet Independent Taxpayer Oversight Committee met to consider the matter Jan. 9.

"We felt very strongly -- unanimously -- that we should stay the course, stay with the Early Action Program scenario that we have right now," Meyer said. "We are going through a volatile period in terms of prices and costs. But, by the same token, promises were made to the taxpayers."

When the agency went around the region in 2004 to drum up support for its proposal to extend TransNet, a half-penny-on-the-dollar tax, beyond March 2008, it ran into opposition in North County.

Much was due to the agency's failure to fulfill an earlier promise -- made in 1987 -- to widen Highway 76. The agency did manage to improve the road in Oceanside, but the project stalled at Melrose Drive. Money ran out for the 10 miles between there and I-15. As a result, some North County leaders urged area voters to reject the 2004 tax-renewal measure.

The association won over skeptics, however, by making another promise: To not only finish Highway 76 in the second go-round, but move it to the front of the pack.

During a public comment period, San Diego resident Clive Richard said the agency must keep its promise.

"If we're going to talk about 'Early Action' projects, we should do them early," Richard said.

Gallegos said there should be plenty of opportunity to fill the gap.

"This is a marathon and not a sprint," Gallegos said. "Forty years is a long time."

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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