GARDEN GROVE : Council Backs Diversion of Measure M Funds to County Bailout

The City Council has thrown its support behind the effort to repeal Measure M and use the money raised from that half-cent sales tax to bail the county out of its financial crisis and avoid another tax increase.

The council last week passed a resolution calling on the Orange County Transportation Authority to place Measure M on a countywide ballot for repeal or modification.

“Voters approved Measure M, they can modify it,” Councilman Mark Leyes said. The initiative, approved in 1990, added a half-cent to county sales taxes to be used for transportation improvements.

The current county sales tax rate is 7.75%.

Leyes said Measure M would raise about $3 billion over 20 years, and if some of the money were redirected to the county, there would be no need for an additional half-cent sales tax increase proposed as Measure R. Voters will consider the issue in a special election June 27.

Transportation officials are opposed to the diversion of Measure M money, which, they said, would mean halting critical projects, including the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway.

But Leyes said the state Supreme Court ruled last month that taxes approved by voters may also be repealed or modified through another ballot.

He said it may be too late to put the issue before the electorate June 27, but “voters must have an alternative other than the proposed sales tax increase.”