By John Gillotti, Cypress, Owner of Mission Grill in San Juan Capistrano
As a Southern California small business owner, I find the toll roads invaluable in my commute between my home and my south Orange County restaurant. They save me time, and that saves me money.
From a business owners’ point of view, the state should stay out of it. The Transportation Corridor Agencies, funded by private bond holders, filled the void created by the state’s inability to build new freeways—vital to our economic prosperity and quality of life. South Orange County, home to more than one million people, is served by one freeway. That is the situation the state created.
The investors in the toll roads will do a far better job of judging the risk of the roads verses the return than the state. Other agencies have begun to build toll lanes, too. The state should get its own financial house in order by becoming more businesslike and leave the TCA alone.
Are you kidding? The state has needed to investigate these toll roads since they were first put in almost 20 years ago. We knew back then that could never succeed, no matter how much hype they put out there. How poorly run is a business that says “we don’t have enough users, so lets raise the rates”. Any real business that operated like that would be out of business. So it is not surprise that they could be on the verge of bankruptcy. Only the mis-informed could believe that they were put in because the state was unable. Toll Roads were the creation of developers needing to develop land that they could not otherwise get to. Aliso Viejo, Ranch Santa Margarita, Ladera Ranch, Dove Canyon, and every community along the foot hill toll road could not have been built unless the toll roads were put in. The state had no reason to put roads were the toll roads are, only the developers. Let see, let’s build roads thru no mans land, then we can build there, and we can make the dumb public to pay the bill not only to get to their homes but to pay for all the infrastructure to by making the Mello-Roos Districts. We are not charged fees to use the toll road, it is a “Use Tax” plan and simple.
The toll roads will not be allowed to fail by the developers until all of the land near the toll roads is developed (or they cannot get their 241 extension to be able to build on more land they cannot get too presently), then they will be left on there own to fail and for the state to take over. Just another way the tax payers will foot the bill.