Countywide : County Issue Sales Tax for Transportation Projects

The Ventura County Transportation Commission next month will consider a ballot-measure proposal that would raise the county sales tax half a cent to pay for $500

million in transportation projects. Last November, voters rejected the same proposal. Should the commission place another tax increase on the 1991 ballot?

Frank Schillo

Thousand Oaks city councilman There isn’t enough information to determine whether we should put the issue back on the ballot. I object to the idea of just jamming the measure into the faces of the people. The people have to be better informed as to the needs and then decide to tax themselves. You do it by having an educational program. You say here are what our needs are: traffic, roads, etc. There was a meeting about the issues that was televised on Channel 10. The director of public works went over, and only 40 people showed up. It just didn’t get to the public. There is a group of people who may want to put it on the ballot, but as far as I’m concerned, we need to establish education programs, to the extent that people understand what the money will be used for in each one of the communities in the county. I don’t think if you went out on the street and asked people: “Why did you vote against the tax measure?” that they would understand that they had voted against a tax to fix the roads.

Charles D. Coffey

Executive director, Simi Valley Transportation Management Assn. This is a difficult question, because we are all concerned about taxes. As far as new taxes go, I’m against any. Nevertheless, we need funding for transportation and transportation

management. So how do we solve the problem? First, it needs to be explicitly clear what we have on the books already, and the taxes that have been earmarked for the purpose of transportation. The populace needs to be educated on what is available to mitigate traffic problems. If that means new taxes, then we need to know that that is what the ballot measure is for. If the people understand, they may very well take a different look at it. What it boils down to is what do you do to mitigate those problems? Our outlook on that is not necessarily to build more roads. We must make sure the roads we have are in good shape. And we should begin to take a look at alternate forms of transportation, including mass transportation and ride-sharing. It is much more cost-effective to do things collectively.

Fred W. Robinson

Chairman, Yes on Measure A Committee Yes, I think the issue should be presented to the voters again. However, I’m not sure that November, 1991, represents the best opportunity to do it. I think for an initiative to be successful in Ventura County, a number of things have to be in order. One is that we must have a dramatically improved economy overall, or I don’t think the voters would be supportive. Secondly, I think the measure was initially defeated largely because of the voter revolt in the November ’90 election--that whole Proposition 140 attitude. No new sales tax, read my lips, read my hips. I think that, before this can be successful in Ventura County, the public is going to need to be convinced that what they’re buying is good for them and good for Ventura County, and that’s going to be difficult unless voter attitude is changed. I think it is the responsibility of the people who run the campaign, and I’m involved in that, to educate the public and to show them how a measure like this, sales tax out of their pocket, is good for public policy and good for the county.

Elaine L. Freeman

Commissioner,California Transportation Commission Yes, I think they should. This is a measure that directly benefits the people who live here, and I don’t think that the message got out to the folks just because there were so many other

decisions they had to make. Looking statewide for instance, Orange County passed theirs on their third attempt this November, and it’s going to benefit the people who live there extremely, in terms of the new transportation improvements that will be constructed. So if the people of Ventura County can see the advantages to them, I think they will have a better chance of getting it approved this time. Every other county surrounding Ventura County has a half-cent sales tax, and Los Angeles has a lot more as a matter of fact. The results won’t be showing that quickly, because it takes so long to get projects built, but if we don’t have it, we won’t be able to do the improvements.

Ginger Gherardi

Executive director, Ventura County Transportation Commission I don’t know that the commission can make a decision as to whether or not they can place the proposal on the November ballot by next month. I think they need to take the logical steps to enable them to make the decision by next spring. A lot of information is unknown at this time--for example, the economy. The sales-tax measure, the way it is written, needs to be revised. The issue really is: Do you want to take the preliminary steps that will allow you make a decision to go to November? If you say, “No, we don’t want to do this now, basically you’re foreclosing the option to go forward in November. It is clear that there is a tremendous financial need in the county for additional resources, in order to have the local match of state funds, for commuter rail and in order to be able to build highway projects. The main decision which needs to be made is to get the preliminary work done so we haven’t closed off any options.