Sales-Tax Hike to 7.5% Proposed to Help Meet SOAR Aims

Supervisor John Flynn has proposed an initiative to increase the local sales tax to generate additional funds to help save undeveloped land in Ventura County.

At Friday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Flynn proposed increasing the local sales tax rate a quarter of a cent to 7.5% to help generate $20 million that would be used to protect farmland and open space.

Any increase would need to be approved by two-thirds of Ventura County voters. Flynn hopes to put the initiative on the November 2000 ballot.

Flynn said the revenues would be added to the federal, state and foundation grants the county receives each year to purchase and maintain open space and agricultural land rights.

Some question whether Ventura County needs more money to protect undeveloped land when a number of strict growth-control measures are in place, such as SOAR.

Jere Robings, former president of the now-defunct Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers, said Flynn’s proposal wouldn’t meet with much voter approval if it makes the ballot.

“And it shouldn’t. . . . I really don’t see the need for it,” Robings said. “I think Flynn’s dreaming if he thinks this will ever get off the ground.”

Flynn, however, maintains that voters would approve the tax increase because it would go a long way toward finishing what SOAR and Measure A--which called for the creation of six additional greenbelts in the county--have started.