County sponsored sales tax defeated

Measure A loses by wide margin
County voters offered a resounding ‘no’ to the question of a quarter-cent sales tax in Tuesday’s special election.
Measure A lost, with the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters reporting that 62.7 percent of voters said no, with 37.3 voting in favor of the tax, which would have raised as much as $100 million over a five-year period.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors placed the measure on the ballot, at a projected cost of more than $300,000, in an effort to raise funds for road repairs. The funds would have been shared with Sonoma County cities.
“This shows us that we need to focus on other options,” said Fourth District Supervisor James Gore. “We still agree on the ‘what’ (road repair) but the voters clearly disagreed on the ‘how.’”
Proponents of Measure A made a political decision early in the process, to place the matter before the voters as a general tax, which only requires a simple majority for approval. A special tax, which could have been legally allocated to roads, would have required two-thirds approval.
A general tax, which has a lower threshhold for approval, also has no restrictions on its use, which fueled concern that the county could spend it on other needs, such as county employee pensions.
Gore, who just won his own election in November, noted that “there were a lot of taxes on the ballot last November,” and said he was not surprised that voters rejected another tax.
Gore questioned the wisdom of placing the measure before the voters as a general tax. “A lot of people had questions about whether this was done the right way,” he said. “This should have been done as a special tax.”
Fifth District Supervisor Efren Carrillo went even further. “The campaign was awfully run from the onset,” said Carrillo. “It’s not at all surprising. This is a reflection on the voters’ inability to trust the board.”
Gore took the election results as direction from his constituents. “I love it when you get clear guidance from the voters,” he said.
Carrillo and Gore agree that, regardless of how the work is funded, fixing Sonoma County’s decaying roads requires attention.
“This election is no reflection on the voters’ priorities and desires,” Carrillo said. “I will do whatever I can to funnel dollars from the county general fund to roads and infrastructure.”
Gore noted that the county is at work now on the budget for the next fiscal year (July 2015 to June 2016) and that Measure A’s defeat “gives us clear guidance going forward to look at other options.”
Carrillo said that county revenues are projected to be up for the third year in a row and that spending $9 million to $10 million on roads next year seems likely, “but when you need $47 million a year, it’s just a bite at the apple.”