Sacramento's proposed anti-gang tax was dumped by the City Council on Tuesday night.

Doomed by its failure to meet much of the city's public safety needs, the measure calling for a quarter-percentage-point increase in the city's sales tax fell one council vote short of the six it needed to appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Had it made it to the ballot – and then gained two-thirds of the vote – the tax hike would have added $16 million to city coffers for prevention and enforcement efforts in the fight against street gangs.

Council members Sandy Sheedy, Steve Cohn, Robbie Waters and Lauren Hammond voted against the measure.

Mayor Heather Fargo and council members Ray Tretheway, Rob Fong, Bonnie Pannell and Kevin McCarty voted for the plan.

Hammond, who abstained from voting on the measure last week, said Tuesday she'd rather see a measure that calls for a tax supporting parks, transit and public safety.

"Instead of going to the voters in a piecemeal fashion one issue at a time, we (should) ask for everything at the same time with a reasonable amount," Hammond said.

Supporters of the measure – led by Fargo – said the tax increase made sense as the city grapples with a sagging budget and persistent youth crime.

"I was really convinced it made sense," Fargo said. "There's no magic money here, no big pot of money we haven't looked for. This was a real missed opportunity."

The measure called for the addition of nearly 60 Police Department personnel in the first year. It also would have provided an influx of revenue – estimated at $9.6 million in the first year – for community organizations working in gang prevention.

The tax increase from 7.75 percent to 8 percent would have been in effect for 15 years. The city now spends $2.4 million tackling youth violence, a number that includes the new Office of Youth Development.

"This measure is an opportunity to address a full generation of people," Assistant City Manager Cassandra Jennings told the council.

Opponents of the measure said the ordinance did not go far enough to beef up the city's shrinking Police Department and ignored the Fire Department's budget woes. The Police Department has lost 75 officers since last summer and has one of the smallest forces per capita in the nation, while fire stations are on rolling brownouts caused by budget cutbacks.

The city's public safety challenges would be better supported by a tax measure that addresses both the Police and Fire departments, opponents said. A plan to place an assessment on a future ballot connected to the city's public safety master plan has been looked at by the police and fire unions. But they balked at introducing it this year.

City officials said any new sales tax increase could not appear on the ballot until the next general election in 2010.

Those who voted against the measure also said it was rushed through the council too quickly and was a hand-me-down from a failed county proposal scrapped earlier this month.

Hammond said the plan would have come before voters at the same time the city is floating a tax on text messaging and battling scandals within the Utilities Department and library authority. She said city officials would be better off asking the voters to approve a new vote at "a time when we have more public trust."

Officials said the added revenue from the anti-gang tax could have paid for 30 street police in the first year. Two dozen uniformed community service officers also could have joined the department's ranks to handle paperwork and reports, freeing up police to tackle street gangs.

Police Chief Rick Braziel said Monday many of the officers brought on through the measure would have tackled crime sprees involving young suspects and that some of the officers could have been used to beef up the department's gang unit. "This would have helped," he said.

The revenue also would have helped city programs and community groups working with at-risk youth.

Derrell Roberts, co-founder of the Roberts Family Development Center in North Sacramento, said groups are already underfunded and called Tuesday's vote "politics winning out over kids."

"There's so much denial (on the City Council), it's scary," he said.

Roberts accused Sheedy of failing to acknowledge the scope of the crime problem in her district, which covers North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights and other neighborhoods in the city's northeast corner.

Sheedy said reports of high gang crime in her district were exaggerated, although police statistics show it has had the most shootings into occupied buildings and tied for the most homicides of any council district over the past 18 months.

"I don't think the councilwoman of District 2 understands the problem in her own backyard," Roberts said.

Officials said there are 4,300 gang members in the city, 850 of whom are children. According to Braziel, the gang issue spreads beyond city streets.

"We've seen pictures of gangsters raising their children to be gangsters," he said, adding gangs have begun recruiting in grammar schools.

Supporters of the measure vowed to keep exploring ways to fund youth violence and gang prevention efforts.

"It's a setback, but it's not the end," said Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, who spearheaded the failed county measure.

Mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson, a vocal opponent of the measure, released a statement indicating he would meet with community groups later this week to discuss other options.

"The soaring rate in crime under Mayor Fargo's watch didn't appear overnight and wouldn't have been solved with an 11th-hour, election-year piecemeal approach that lacked the support of local law enforcement and community leaders," Johnson said in a statement released by his campaign.

"We need a comprehensive strategy with broad-based community support that attacks both the problem and its root causes, and has the active support of law enforcement."

Call The Bee's Ryan Lillis, (916) 321-1085.