Counting the Costs : Panel Weighs Countywide Sales Tax for Transportation

Faced with the soaring cost of Metrolink and other transit and road projects, the Ventura County Transportation Commission is considering taking the first steps toward putting a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot.

Following a request made by the commission earlier this month, staff members compiled a list of recommendations to raise money for transportation projects. Leading the list is a proposal to hire a consultant to study whether residents would vote to tax themselves to pay for buses, trains and road repair.

The move comes four years after voters overwhelmingly defeated Measure A--a similar ballot initiative that would have raised $500 million for transportation projects over a 20-year period.

But transit leaders say that without the tax or some other new funding source, Metrolink service could be cut back, and the county and its 10 cities will see costs escalate as funding for street repairs and local bus service continues to shrink.

Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the commission, spelled out the problem in a written report presented Monday at a meeting of traffic engineers and other public works staff from the county and the 10 cities.

“Clearly, we are facing these problems because we are the only urbanized county without a local half-cent sales tax for transportation,” Gherardi wrote. The commission staff “believes that despite the political climate, the economy and other issues, we have to deal with the funding issue this year.”

In November, California voters passed Proposition 172, a statewide extension of a half-cent sales tax to subsidize crime-fighting services.

In Ventura County, the tax passed by a margin of 58.1% to 48.9%, keeping the county’s sales tax at 7.25%.

Ventura County is the largest county in California that does not collect a transportation sales tax, and the only county in Southern California without one.

A half-cent sales tax would add $25 million to the transportation commission’s annual $64-million budget.

If passed, the tax would help the county capture even more money through state and federal programs that require local matching funds, Gherardi said.

The commission at its May 8 meeting will consider paying a consultant $30,000 to gauge whether residents would vote for the transportation tax. The money for the consultant would come out of the commission’s professional services budget, according to the report presented Monday.

If the study is approved, it would be conducted during May, and the commission would decide at its June 3 meeting whether to put the measure on the fall ballot.

As in 1990, the campaign, which would cost an estimated $400,000, could be funded by businesses seeking ways to comply with federal regulations to improve public transit and reduce air pollution, Gherardi wrote.

The last campaign received strong support from the Ventura County Economic Development Assn. Marc Charney, association president, said the group will wait until the commission reaches a decision before deciding whether to support the measure.

One commissioner, Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo, said he opposes placing the measure on the November ballot because there is not enough time to prepare a solid campaign to win over voters.

“We went through this once before, and it was a big rush job and it didn’t work,” Schillo said. “It takes time to put together this kind of a campaign.”