Cities Support a Vote on Tax

A half-cent sales tax initiative that would generate about $50 million a year for Ventura County highway and road improvements has received the endorsement of a majority of the county’s 10 cities, moving the proposal one step closer to placement on the November ballot.

Although three cities have yet to vote on the ballot proposal, it received the necessary support this week to be considered by the county Transportation Commission. The panel will decide June 4 whether to ask the county Board of Supervisors to put the measure before voters.

“We have enough to do it now,” said Kerry Forsythe, deputy director of the commission. “It would just be nice to have all the cities participate.”

Moorpark, Oxnard and Port Hueneme city councils voted this week to back the ballot measure, joining Camarillo, Fillmore, Santa Paula and Simi Valley. Although all three councils voting this week were unanimous, others have not been.

The Ventura, Ojai and Thousand Oaks councils are scheduled to take up the issue next week.

County supervisors must meet a June 30 deadline for placement of the tax initiative on the fall ballot.

If approved by voters, the half-cent sales tax would raise about $1 billion over 30 years for long-delayed highway and local road improvements. The county’s sales tax is currently 7.25%

Money collected from the tax would be divided, with 40% going for highway projects, 40% to cities for street improvements and 20% for public transit and bike and pedestrian projects, officials said.

A significant portion of the $50 million generated annually by the tax would be used to quickly begin widening three major county bottlenecks -- Lewis Road from the Ventura Freeway to the Cal State Channel Islands campus near Camarillo and state highways 23 in Thousand Oaks and 118 west of Moorpark.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who serves as an alternate on the Transportation Commission, said Thursday that he would vote to put the initiative on the ballot but declined to take a position on the issue. “I think the voters ought to be given a chance, and they will, to vote on it,” he said.

Flynn did acknowledge that congestion on county roads and freeways was worsening. “The traffic is horrendous. And it happened kind of overnight.

“But I do think that with rising gasoline taxes, public transit is going to become more popular,” he said, adding that he would like to see increased Metrolink commuter train service in the county.

If approved by all parties, the transportation initiative would be the second countywide sales-tax measure to appear on the fall ballot. Supervisors voted May 4 to put a 10-year, quarter-cent tax on the ballot, with the money earmarked for acquisition and preservation of open space.