Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson announced Thursday he was abandoning his plan to ask for a countywide quarter-cent sales tax increase to generate $50 million a year to combat gangs.

Facing opposition from the county's suburban cities and a sheriff lukewarm to the idea, Dickinson said he was bowing to political reality: Even if the proposal made it on the Nov. 4 ballot, he couldn't muster two-thirds voter approval in Sacramento County.

Rather, Dickinson told The Bee that he will suggest the city of Sacramento pursue the tax on its own.

"We are going to drop going forward with the board and instead approach the City Council about it putting it on the ballot for the city of Sacramento only," Dickinson said.

A quarter-cent city sales tax increase – which also would require two-thirds approval of city voters in November – would generate $16 million a year to the city's gang prevention, intervention and suppression efforts, he said.

The city's sale tax would increase from 7.75 percent to 8 percent, while the county's would remain at 7.75 percent.

Some city leaders were receptive Thursday to the idea – but not all of them.

Mayor Heather Fargo said she would continue to back a city-only measure.

And Councilman Kevin McCarty called it "absolutely the right thing to do."

"It's a wise investment in our youth," he said.

But Councilman Steve Cohn said he couldn't support a sales tax increase. "This is the wrong vehicle – it's a regressive tax," he said.

"If we are going to go out to voters, it should be for (something) more comprehensive … a more general public safety issue," Cohn said.

The effect of Dickinson's announcement was immediate. The proposal was dropped from the Board of Supervisors' agenda Tuesday – where it had been scheduled for a vote.

It was put on the Sacramento City Council's agenda Tuesday, although it was unclear whether it is a discussion or an action item.

In interviews with The Bee, political analysts and local leaders said Dickinson's gambit failed because he hadn't laid the groundwork with city leaders soon enough and because he never got Sheriff John McGinness' backing for the measure.

Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters, both Republicans, had said they wanted McGinness to sign off on it before committing to vote to put it on the ballot.

The remaining supervisors, Jimmie Yee and Don Nottoli, had been noticeably quiet about the measure.

McGinness' position left Republicans little room for support, said Rob Stutzman, a local political consultant and former communications director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"For a Republican wanting to move up and who has to run the gantlet of a primary, a tax vote is pretty easily fashioned as a noose," Stutzman said. "At a minimum, you want to move behind the leadership of the sheriff."

McGinness commended Dickinson for "being forward-thinking."

"But, as things stood, I thought it would be an uphill effort to get the voters to support it," McGinness said. "If the time comes that it's imperative to go to the taxpayers for more money to fight gangs, the effort has to include a lot more players from the outset.

"We have to have a defensible plan we can implement with a measurable component to gauge its success," he said.

He said he was troubled by the idea of pitting law enforcement vs. prevention efforts. "I submit that law enforcement has a huge prevention component," he said.

He cited his department's high-impact unit, which he said has reduced criminal activity considerably in its first two years. "That's a prevention effort that can be quantified," he said.

Mayor Linda Budge of Rancho Cordova said she also was not surprised to learn the plan was scuttled.

"This wouldn't be the first time that Roger proposed an idea that didn't have broad support," she said. "There has to be a perception of need for something like this to fly. Well, the perception of need in Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova and Folsom was not as significant as the city of Sacramento or the unincorporated county."

"If the city of Sacramento wants to do that, good, we can all learn from their experience," she said.

Citrus Heights Mayor Steve Miller said he "didn't feel that it was a good time with the economy to deal with a tax hike."

Miller said that Citrus Heights' proximity to Placer County put it at special risk for sales-tax dollars fleeing north and would put its Sunrise Mall at a competitive disadvantage with malls in Roseville.

In addition, hiking the sales tax would make any future increases odious to voters, Miller said, including one in discussion with regional elected officials to raise money for increased transit options countywide.

Citrus Heights, he said, already deals with its gang and youth crime issues via its own police department, which took over from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department in 2006.

Mayor Gary Davis of Elk Grove called the switch a "missed opportunity."

"The lesson learned is that for something of this magnitude, you have to spend the time getting a buy-in from regional leaders," Davis said. "It would have been an opportunity to invest in prevention in a major way."

Folsom officials said they couldn't justify asking voters to send millions of dollars to their city when their police can identify only a handful of gang members living there.

Dickinson acknowledged that the suburban cities' response made the likelihood of success untenable but said gang issues cross city lines.

"We began this effort as a countywide issue," Dickinson said, "because this is an issue that doesn't respect political boundaries."

Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269. The Bee's Stan Oklobdzija contributed to this report.