COUNTYWIDE : Board to See If Cities Back Sales Tax Boost

The Ventura County Transportation Commission on Friday voted to ask the county’s 10 cities if they would support placing a measure on the November ballot that would raise the sales tax a half-cent to help pay for local street construction and repairs.

The proposed ballot measure must be approved by the county’s 10 cities and the Board of Supervisors before it can be placed on the ballot in the fall, said Mary Travis, a county transportation official.

The increased sales tax would generate an estimated $25 million per year for the next 20 years, Travis said.

Transportation officials acknowledged that county voters might be reluctant to approve another tax increase after the passage of Proposition 111. That measure, approved Tuesday, will raise the gasoline tax by 5 cents a gallon statewide for one year beginning Aug. 1, then go up a penny a year for the next four years.

But Travis said that because $2 billion of the new gas-tax funds will be distributed to those counties that can come up with matching funds, it would benefit residents to support the local sales tax increase.

With the passage of Proposition 111, Ventura County is expected to receive $160 million over the next 10 years for road construction. Travis said if the sales tax were increased, the county could get as much as $65 million more over the same period of time.