Board Rethinks Dual-Project Tax

After a poll showing that voters would reject a combined half-cent tax increase for road and land preservation projects, Ventura County supervisors Tuesday will consider reverting to a more modest quarter-cent sales tax measure for land conservation only.

Sixty percent of poll respondents said they would vote yes on the hybrid tax measure, short of the two-thirds supermajority needed for approval, according to survey results released Thursday.

Supervisors in March commissioned the poll to find out whether voters would accept a dual-project tax increase on the November ballot, or whether such a measure would just confuse them.

While respondents strongly supported both preserving open space and fixing congested freeways, they were not willing to support a combined tax to pay for those goals, the survey found.

The poll questioned 600 residents and was conducted March 25-31 by True North Research Inc. of Encinitas. Results have a 3.9% margin of error.

Proponents of open space could take heart from the poll’s more specific findings, including its conclusion that environmental projects are popular among county residents.

“In general, not only do the environmental projects have a larger percentage of voters that strongly favor funding the projects, information related to the environmental projects was found to raise support for a joint sales tax more so than transportation-focused features and arguments,” said an analysis of the survey’s findings.

What remains unanswered, however, is whether enough voters will back a quarter-cent sales tax increase dedicated solely to buying up open space and agricultural land so that it won’t be developed. That specific question was not asked in the True North Research poll.

Also unclear is whether an open-space tax would face competition on the ballot from a separate levy increase to pay for transportation improvements. The Ventura County Transportation Commission, a body independent of the Board of Supervisors, is considering such a measure for November.

Ginger Gherardi, the commission’s executive director, said the transit panel was in the midst of its own poll and would present findings at its May 7 meeting.

An earlier survey indicated a half-cent sales tax increase would fail, but the commission has since conducted a public education campaign to alert voters to the need for a local revenue source for road projects.

A half-cent tax would raise $1.44 billion over 30 years, dollars that would be used to immediately begin widening three key county bottlenecks. Commission members have said those projects could be delayed for decades because of the state’s budget crisis.

“We were very close in December and that was before the public realized we were dealing with years and years of delays,” Gherardi said.

As for the county poll’s results, Gherardi said she was not surprised. The Transportation Commission’s earlier poll indicated it probably would fail, and since then, four cities have taken a position against having a hybrid measure on the ballot.

On Tuesday, supervisors will debate a staff recommendation to place a quarter-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot. The tax would end after 10 years. Voters at the same time would be asked to approve formation of an open-space district to administer the funds, assisted by a citizens committee.

In a report to the county board, the staff suggests a number of alternatives should supervisors balk at a quarter-cent levy. They include asking voters to approve only the formation of the open-space district in November -- putting off the funding source for another election -- and asking voters to approve a half-cent sales tax increase.

An open-space advisory group is strongly recommending that supervisors move ahead with both funding and formation in November. The 41-member committee, which has met for two years on the issue, argued that momentum for an open-space district had built up and that the county would lose out on state and federal conservation funds by delaying a vote.

Proponents of both open-space and transportation projects are expected to fill the supervisors’ hearing room Tuesday to voice their own opinions.