Governor’s Support for Financing Perceived : Toll Road Remarks Please Officials

County transportation officials are interpreting statements Gov. George Deukmejian made Thursday in Irvine to mean they have a good chance of snaring the federal money they need to payb for a toll road in Orange County, a first of its kind in the state.

Deukmejian did not specifically mention the Orange County project in referring to his support of the toll road concept in a speech at the Irvine Hilton, but Stanley T. Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission, and James Reichert, general manager of the county Transit District, said they were greatly encouraged by his remarks.

“Having the governor talk in Orange County about how much he likes toll roads is a very positive sign for us,” Oftelie said. The federal money would have to be allocated through the state Department of Transportation, and Deukmejian came “to the brink of committing,” he said.

In his speech, at the first of five regional transportation conferences he has planned, Deukmejian called for innovative ideas to relieve traffic congestion problems in California and referred to toll roads as among “innovative solutions.”

He noted a bill he signed last month that allows building California’s first toll roads in Orange County then said he hoped the action would “pave the way for the federal government, the state, local communities and the private sector to solve the problem.”

Orange County officials are trying to obtain the federal money to pay for 35% of the $350-million cost of building a toll road in the San Joaquin Hills Corridor from Newport Beach to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano, roughly parallel to Interstate 5.

Oftelie said that half the money would come from developers’ fees collected by local jurisdictions and that the remaining 15% would come from tolls. The project has a projected cost of $350 million.

Kevin Brett, Deukmejian’s press secretary, would not comment directly on Oftelie’s and Reichert’s interpretation of Deukmejian’s remarks but pointed out that Deukmejian had not referred to how California would pay for toll roads.

“He made reference to the bill because the bill is Orange County specific,” Brett said. “The only financing he talked about was bonds.”

Brett’s last reference was to Deukmejian’s proposal to sell $2.3 million in short-term general-obligation bonds or notes to pay for his five-year transportation program, unveiled this spring.