COUNTYWIDE : Half-Cent Tax Boost Will Be on Fall Ballot

The County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to place a half-cent sales tax increase for road and transit improvements on the November ballot.

If approved by voters, the tax increase would raise an estimated $25 million a year, or $500 million over the next 20 years, to pay for roadway improvements and expanded transit service in the county.

In addition, it would qualify the county to receive $130 million in state funds in the next decade. Under Proposition 111, the gasoline tax initiative approved by voters in June, such funds are to be distributed only to counties that raise matching funds.

Chairwoman Madge L. Schaefer cast the lone vote against placing the measure on the ballot. “I have observed how the state blackmails money from the counties,” she said.

In an interview following the board meeting, Schaefer predicted that the county’s voters will defeat the tax increase, though she stopped short of saying she will campaign against it.

“I think people are tired of being asked to pay more taxes, and I don’t think they ought to be asked to pay more,” she said.

She characterized the state’s matching-funds requirement as “extortion.”

Reminded that all 10 cities in the county have backed the sales tax increase, Schaefer said: “Some of those cities have very strong cash reserves. Maybe they ought to use some of those reserves for transportation instead of raising people’s taxes.”

Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, chairman of the county Transportation Commission, which also backs the measure, said funds raised by the tax increase “aren’t just for highways. They’re for transit for the handicapped and the elderly, too.”

Some backers of the tax increase fear that voters may turn the proposal down because it will go on the ballot so soon after passage of Proposition 111. Under the new law, the state gasoline tax will rise 5 cents a gallon starting Aug. 1, then go up a penny a year for the next four years.

The gas tax is expected to raise about $18.5 billion for statewide transportation projects. Of this, Ventura County will receive about $200 million.

Transportation officials have said it will take about $1.3 billion to complete badly needed road work in the county.

Projects that would be financed by the tax increase include improvements and maintenance of U.S. 101 and California 1, 23, 33, 34, 118, 126, 150 and 232. The added revenues would also help finance rail commuter service between Ventura and Los Angeles counties, said Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the county transportation panel.

The current county sales tax of 6 1/4% will drop to 6% in December with the end of a special increase to help repair damage caused by last year’s Northern California earthquake.

The proposed increase, which would go into effect next March, would bring the levy to 6 1/2%.