TCA Boards Approve Fiscal Year 2020 Budgets Focused on Enhancing Customer Service and Advancing Capital Improvements

The Joint Boards of Directors of the San Joaquin Hills (SJHTCA) and Foothill/Eastern (F/ETCA) Transportation Corridor Agencies approved budgets totaling $345.4 million – $146 million for SJHTCA and $199.4 million for F/ETCA – to fund operations, advance initiatives that support capital improvements for the 73, 133, 241 and 261 Toll Roads, enhance customer service for more than 1.5 million accountholders and strengthen financial health. Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) begins July 1, 2019.

The FY20 budgets provide funding for:

• Completing the $38 million bridge overcrossing at Oso Parkway and finalizing the environmental document for the proposed 241/91 Express Connector
• Improving customer service, operations and simplifying customers’ preferred payment options, while also enabling all of TCA’s 1.5 million accountholders to use all toll facilities in California with the transition to new FasTrak® sticker transponders
• Sponsoring and initiating the formal environmental review process, in partnership with Caltrans, for the South County Traffic Relief Effort
• Growing cash reserves to protect against economic downturns and allow for future pay-as-you-go capital improvement project financing and preserve the flexibility for early debt repayment
• Maintaining TCA’s strong financial position, credit ratings status and meeting investor expectations

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TCA to Pay Off $12.8 Million for Unfunded Pension Liability in FY20

In a demonstration of the Transportation Corridor Agencies’ (TCA) strong financial health and commitment to fiscal responsibility, the F/ETCA and SJHTCA today voted to pay off TCA’s unfunded pension liability with the Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) on July 1, 2019.

“In an era when so many public agencies find themselves with their backs to the pension wall, it’s a sign of TCA’s financial strength and compliment to my fellow Board Members and staff that we’re in a position to pay off our unfunded pension liability,” said Director Joe Muller, chair of TCA’s Joint Finance & Investment Committee and Dana Point Mayor.

TCA’s unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) currently stands at $12.8 million. By paying that off now, TCA can lower its employer contribution rate by almost half of the 24 percent of salaries that it is currently obligated to pay.

TCA’s decision to pay off the Agencies’ UAAL is the latest in a series of actions taken by TCA to reinforce its strong financial foundation.

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TCA Boards of Directors Adopt FY20 Capital Improvement Plan

F/ETCA and SJHTCA adopted TCA’s FY20 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for Orange County’s 51-miles of Toll Roads. Updated annually, the CIP details the status, cost and schedule of capital projects that ensure a free flow condition is maintained on the 73, 133, 241 and 261 Toll Roads.

Currently, more than $140 million in local partnership projects - Oso Parkway Bridge and Los Patrones Parkway – are under construction, with funding provided by TCA. The FY20 CIP also includes updating signs throughout The Toll Roads’ system, efforts related to the 241/91 Express Connector and South Orange County Traffic Relief Effort and two studies for proposed interchanges.

Including the initial segment of the 241 Toll Road between Portola Parkway (North) and Portola Parkway (South) which opened to traffic in 1993, TCA has successfully invested and constructed roughly $2.8 billion of infrastructure, without the use of tax dollars, making up 20 percent of Orange County’s highway system.

TCA’s continued investment in regional transportation infrastructure includes 17 capital improvement projects in more than two decades.

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Plans, Contracts and Policies for FY20 Initiatives Approved

The F/ETCA and SJHTCA met on June 13 for the last Board meeting of FY19. Along with approving the FY20 budgets, the Boards of Directors also voted to approve the following:

• Design/program management and specialty contracting services
• Hispanic community outreach and Spanish language translation services
• Native American Tribal consultation policy
• Extension of interim Chief Communications Officer
• Traffic and revenue forecast services
• Patrol services for Upper Chiquita Canyon Conservation Area
• Technical support for 241/91 Express Connector
• Federal legislative advocacy services
• Long range planning and communications support services
• Stakeholder support services for state resource agencies and environmental organizations