ELECTIONS MEASURES : Higher Sales Tax Would Help Roads

Ventura County voters will decide Tuesday on a sales tax increase that will give county transportation authorities hundreds of millions of dollars they say is needed to keep pace with growth and avoid the gridlock that has seized neighboring counties.

If approved by a majority of voters, Measure A could generate $500 million to widen highways and finance other transportation projects by raising the local sales tax half a cent for the next 20 years.

Measure A is the only countywide measure on Tuesday’s ballot. The cities of Moorpark, Fillmore and Santa Paula and the town of Piru have local measures designed to raise taxes for schools, ambulance service, building repairs and library services.

Although raising taxes is rarely popular, Measure A has attracted a wide spectrum of support from the Ventura County Economic Development Assn. and the League of Women Voters to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

A key selling point is that the measure would allow the county to claim an additional $130 million in state gas-tax revenues by providing a source for local matching funds.

Transportation officials say the county cannot afford to apply for all of the money available under Proposition 111, approved by the voters in June.

“We are out of that game right now,” said Arthur E. Goulet, director of the county’s Public Works Agency. “Ventura County is one of the few remaining urban counties without a local sales tax for transportation.”

Measure A has attracted opponents from the ranks of the slow-growth movement. The Environmental Coalition of Ventura County, which wrote the ballot arguments against the measure, contends that it is designed to open up new areas to developers and pass on the cost to taxpayers.

The Environmental Coalition argues that the measure does not guarantee that tax dollars will be spent to reduce traffic and congestion, and that precious little is dedicated to improving mass transit.

But supporters, led by the Ventura County Transportation Commission, say the measure will speed up critical expansion of California 118, California 23 from Thousand Oaks into Moorpark and the Ventura Freeway at the Santa Clara Bridge.

In addition, the half-cent hike would help finance a commuter rail service linking Moorpark and Simi Valley to the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles, and would subsidize transit services for the handicapped and elderly.

County Clerk Richard Dean said Measure A, which requires a simple majority of votes for approval, has far better odds of survival than four other tax-raising measures on Tuesday’s ballot that require a two-thirds majority for passage. “It’s hard enough to get 50% on a tax increase, and it is nearly impossible to get two-thirds,” he said.

In Moorpark, voters will decide the fate of Measure B, a $25.5-million bond measure to finance a new middle school and the expansion of Moorpark High School. City school officials say the development is needed to keep up with the city’s surging student enrollment.

Moorpark voters will also decide whether to create a special tax district to finance a city-based ambulance service. Residents and city officials have complained of slow ambulance response times. Measure C would give the city the authority to levy property taxes to finance its own ambulance service, at a cost of up to $870,000 a year.

Both Moorpark measures face opposition from residents who say they are ill-conceived ideas that will cost property owners far more than estimated.

Voters in Fillmore and Piru will vote on Measure D, which would authorize a special tax to pay for maintenance and operation of the Veterans Memorial Building, an unofficial community center in Fillmore. If approved, property owners in the area will be assessed an additional $10 a year.

In Santa Paula, voters will decide on measures E and F, which together would authorize a special tax within the Santa Paula Union High School Public Library District.

If approved, the measures would tax each parcel of land an additional $15 a year to pay for longer operating hours and new materials and equipment for Blanchard Community Library.