COUNTYWIDE : $624-Million Budget Approved by OCTA

Orange County transportation officials on Monday approved a $624-million spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that includes several major projects, among them the massive Santa Ana Freeway widening effort and expanded commuter rail service.

“Three-fourths of the budget is going directly into construction projects, which will be an immediate benefit to the economy,” said Stan Oftelie, chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority. “We have an in-house mantra--on time and under budget.”

The spending plan, based heavily on revenue from the Measure M sales tax for transportation projects approved in 1990, is down nearly $70 million from the fiscal 1993 budget of $693.7 million. Cost-saving measures include the elimination of 39 jobs.

The budget includes an early-retirement incentive for some employees of two years’ extra service credited toward pension benefits. Officials said they don’t know yet how much the retirement package will cost because it’s not clear how many employees will accept the offer.

The new budget calls for 1,629 employees, down 39 positions from current levels and 161 fewer than in June, 1991. That’s when the Orange County Transit District and the Orange County Transportation Commission merged to form OCTA, with estimated savings to date of about $20 million through improved efficiency.

OCTA Chairman Gary L. Hausdorfer, a San Juan Capistrano councilman, said of the previously announced job reductions that the positions represented “real people” and mean “hardship” for families and children. “It’s difficult to do this,” he said.

Anti-toll road activists were present at OCTA’s meeting in Santa Ana on Monday. They came armed with “Stop the Tollroads” signs but sat silently as the OCTA board adopted the budget and, in a separate action, unanimously approved a $13-million loan to the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies for the Foothill tollway, a 3.6-mile section of which is scheduled to open in October, between Portola Parkway North and Portola Parkway South near Mission Viejo.

Tollway officials said they need the money to supplement more than $70 million in bonds that will be sold soon to finance construction of the next Foothill segment, between Portola Parkway South and Santa Margarita Parkway near Rancho Santa Margarita.

The loan will be instrumental in gaining final backing on Wall Street for the bond sale, officials said. OCTA previously loaned the tollway authority $13 million for the San Joaquin Hills toll road, but the debt was repaid earlier this year.

Also on Monday, OCTA board members put heat on the Irvine-based California Private Transportation Co. to start building by July 31 its project of private toll lanes in the median of the Riverside Freeway.

The company has missed previous construction start dates but is now confident that project financing will be completed in time to meet the new deadline, officials said.

Tolls on the roadway will be about $2 each way during rush-hour traffic, but car pools of three or more people will be able to use the lanes for free. Construction won’t be completed until 1996.