Transit, Road Tax Advances Along With Some Limits

Until Monday, Thomas C. Rogers of San Juan Capistrano loomed before Orange County transportation officials like a tall ship from the misty past of failed tax elections.

After all, Rogers had helped defeat a 1-cent tax proposal for transportation projects in June, 1984 by a 7-3 margin, arguing that the measure would simply aid developers and induce more growth.

But Rogers has agreed to support a proposed new half-cent sales tax for highway and transit projects that will be on the Nov. 7 ballot, based on a written preamble for the tax measure that more tightly controls how tax proceeds can be spent.

Adopted by a resolution of the Orange County Transportation Commission on Monday, the preamble states more clearly than before that projects to be funded from the tax revenues could not be changed without a two-thirds vote of a citizens’ advisory committee.

Another Curtailment

The preamble also more clearly states that none of the sales tax money could pay for projects that would “serve traffic generated by new development.”

Rogers wasn’t even at Monday’s Transportation Commission meeting. He was packing for a trip to his Northern California cattle ranch.

“We finally got everything we wanted,” Rogers said in a telephone interview after the meeting. “Now we know that county officials won’t be able to engage in bait and switch.”

The sales tax measure was on the commission’s agenda Monday for a second reading required by state law after its initial approval two weeks ago. All that remains now is for the Board of Supervisors to ask the registrar of voters to print the ballots.

Discussion of the added preamble seemed to rankle some county officials, including Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, who sits on the commission.

‘Sick and Tired’

“Since when did he become the expert on everything,” Riley asked of Rogers after Monday’s vote. “I get sick and tired of this,” added Riley, whom Rogers once opposed for reelection. “If we decide we want to paint the administration building green, do we need to ask him first?”

Indeed, some polls conducted privately for local organizations show that few county residents have ever heard of Tom Rogers, a former chairman of the Orange County Republican Party and veteran political activist who helped lead last year’s failed campaign for Measure A, a countywide slow-growth and traffic-control ballot initiative that was defeated 56% to 44%.

But others put Rogers’ role in perspective. “He may appear to be speaking for himself,” said Stanley T. Oftelie, the commission’s executive director, “but he’s a symbol. He was against us in 1984.”

Actually, Oftelie added, the preamble resolution was sought by several people in addition to Rogers.