Countywide : Supervisors Back Highway Initiatives

The County Board of Supervisors has endorsed two statewide measures on the June 5 ballot that together would raise $18.5 billion for highway improvements and mass transportation projects over the next 10 years.

The supervisors said they support Propositions 111 and 108 because Ventura County would be eligible for money to build projects now delayed indefinitely. Those include reconstruction of the Saticoy Bridge, extension of the Simi Valley Freeway and the widening of California 126 to the Los Angeles County line.

Proposition 111 also would raise the statewide cap on government spending imposed in 1979 by an initiative sponsored by the late Paul Gann.

Without its passage, Ventura County “probably will hit its limit next year,” Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg told the board before its unanimous vote Tuesday. “This is very critical to us.”

The proposed transportation projects would be supported by a 9-cent per gallon increase in the state gas tax by 1994, including a 5-cent increase Aug. 1. The tax would cost the average motorist about $60 a year, according to state legislative analysts.