By: Assemblyman Allan Mansoor
Last year, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) board of directors voted to recommend expansion of the 405 from Costa Mesa to the LA County line without using toll lanes.
This year, there is a new OCTA board, and they want to implement toll lanes.
I’ve joined with many local leaders from cities all along the 405 corridor in putting together a petition asking OCTA to keep the 405 free. You can sign the petition at KeepThe405Free.com.
I’m sending this to all Orange County voters because I want to hear what you have to say, and if you are opposed to toll lanes like me, I need your help.
OCTA will be voting on the toll lanes this Friday morning at 9AM. I’ll be there, but I know that most people cannot. If you sign the petition at KeepThe405Free.com, I’ll print an individual letter with your name on it and present it to the OCTA board at Friday’s meeting.
Before I conclude, I want to give you the opportunity to tell me you don’t want to receive emails like this. If you don’t want to receive messages like this, you can remove yourself by clicking here. Also, if you think I’m on the wrong track, and you support toll lanes, please let me know. You can do so with a simple survey I’ve set up by clicking here to support or here to oppose toll lanes on the 405.
But just getting raw numbers of how many people support or oppose the proposal isn’t good enough. It’s important for everyone to speak up and be heard.
Agree or disagree, I’d like to see as much public participation as possible. Since it seems that the OCTA board seems determined to implement toll lanes, I think it’s particularly important to facilitate communication through the petition at KeepThe405Free.com. Outside of OCTA, I’m not aware of any group that has an organized effort supporting toll lanes, so a good way to show your support is to simply contact OCTA through their website.
If you don’t have enough information to make up your mind on this subject, you can hear more about our position at http://www.keepthe405free.com/
Allan Mansoor Assemblymember, 74th District
P.S. If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to sign our petition at KeepThe405Free.com.
Paid for by Allan Mansoor for Assembly 2014 | 2973 Harbor Blvd. #571 | Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Assembly Member Mansoor, I realize that this is part of your ongoing political effort to obtain the next higher office, and so I’ll say that even a broken clock is right twice a day. This is one of those times, you are on the right side of the issue.
Here is a solution that was posted on letsfixlosal.com (one of the cities affected by this very bad decision by Caltrans and the OCTA).
—
Paying for the same stretch of freeway twice?
Really, think about it. If they use tax dollars I have paid to build a toll lane, isn’t that charging me once for the infrastructure and then charging me again to use it?
If that is the standard by which we tax, and then charge the people, may I suggest that the City of Los Alamitos make Katella a toll road. Measure M funds were used to make it a “super street”, but clearly the rules are now that once you build the road with tax dollars, you can charge people to use that road that was built with their tax dollars. So, let’s erect a toll plaza between Katella and the 605 and charge everyone a dollar to travel down that stretch of road. If you are a Los Al resident you can get a placard for your vehicle from the LAPD once you show you are a resident of Los Alamitos for $1/yr, but everyone else gets to pay $1 per trip for a car and $10/trip for any vehicle with more than eight wheels.
Of course that suggestion isn’t serious, but what if it came up for a vote that stated that if there is a toll lane put on the 405 we would do that. And what if Seal Beach did the same on Seal Beach Blvd on the other side of the bridge. If Huntington Beach did it on one of their major roads (say PCH). If Westminster did it? And Garden Grove. In fact, what if each of the city councils in this end of the County were to vote to create toll roads in their city IF the toll road goes in on the 405 based on this simple theory that they can collect tolls on roads that were built with taxpayer dollars, just like OCTA and Caltrans.
I wonder what the OCTA response would be? If it’s good enough for Caltrans and the OCTA to do it, why can’t the cities use tolls to enhance revenues as well? It’s not like people HAVE to travel that stretch of Katella, they can always take one of the “free roads” instead of the faster “fee road”.
—
So, here is the challenge for you. Pull together the cities and have each pick an “exit” on/off the freeway on a busy street and pass a local law to create a “toll” on the roadway. Challenge the OCTA to take the cities to court, but make sure you provide them with a brief stating that what the cities are doing is no different than what OCTA and Caltrans want to do. Use our tax dollars to build new lanes (roads) and then charge us to use them. If they can do it, why not the individual cities that build and maintain the roads?
Color me impressed by Mansoor. Voted to end RDAs (same vote that cost Norby his job and almost cost Mansoor his), led the fire rings fight, leading on this toll issue, and just read this morning he is one of the few that said no to the immoral pay raise the legislators just received. If he does run for Supe he has my vote.