SAN DIEGO -- San Diego County's regional planning agency Friday adopted a $1 billion budget that will pump tens of millions of dollars into North County roads, including the long-delayed widening of Highway 76.

Well more than 90 percent of the budget for the fiscal year beginning in July will go for regional transportation projects, the agency's primary purpose.

And at the top of the list is the ongoing face lift of Interstate 15.

For several years, the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, has been pumping money into new express lanes in the center of I-15 between Escondido and Miramar. Gary Gallegos, the association's executive director, said the agency will pump an additional $182 million into that project during fiscal year 2009-10.

Most of that $182 million will be spent on the section between Highways 56 and 163, where two existing express lanes are being expanded to four. Gallegos said nearly $57 million was budgeted for the Escondido section under construction between Lake Hodges and Highway 78.

The express-lanes project is scheduled to be completed in 2012.

Aside from that ongoing project, the association budgeted $73.4 million to launch the 5.5-mile Highway 76 project between Melrose Drive in Oceanside and Mission Road in Bonsall in the fall, Gallegos said. The agency plans to spend a total of $244 million through 2013 to widen the narrow, winding road that hugs the San Luis Rey River.

By the end of 2014, the association expects to finish widening the highway out to I-15.

SANDAG also set aside some money for the main artery on the North County coast.

There is $5.5 million in the budget for putting finishing touches, such as landscaping, on the newly remodeled Lomas Santa Fe Drive interchange in Solana Beach.

Gallegos said the agency also is looking to spend $6.4 million to nearly complete an analysis of the environmental impacts of widening I-15 throughout North County, from the Interstate 5/805 split all the way north to Vandegrift Boulevard at Camp Pendleton.

Gallegos said a draft of the environmental report will be released in July. He said SANDAG is going to have to overcome huge environmental challenges to expand I-5 because the freeway crosses lagoons, pushes up against neighborhoods and falls within the jurisdiction of the powerful California Coastal Commission.

SANDAG's $1 billion budget represents about a 1 percent increase from the current $990 million fiscal plan.

The agency's revenue will come in from a variety of sources, including federal stimulus money, traditional federal funding, state bond money and the local TransNet sales tax.

TransNet receipts are down 5.5 percent from last year due to the recession, said Marney Cox, the agency's chief economist. He said sales-tax revenues are expected to partially rebound next year and grow by 2 percent to $243 million.

Cox said recent encouraging developments on the economic front suggest the bottom is near and that the economy will begin to improve, if only gradually, before long.

"On the other hand, the recession is not over," he said. "We'll probably see a continuing rise in the unemployment rate for at least the next three or four months."

The staff portion of the budget is $24.5 billion. It is virtually unchanged from this year.

The association currently has 226 planners, researchers and administrators. And Gallegos said SANDAG will trim the number to 211, by eliminating about half of its 34 temporary positions.

In a bid to shave future personnel costs, the agency will institute a new retirement policy July 1. Everyone hired from that day on will have to contribute to his or her pension at a rate equal to 9 percent of the person's salary. SANDAG will continue to pay those contributions for existing employees.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at 760-745-6611, ext. 2623.