A 40-year sales tax to tackle climate change is likely headed to Sacramento’s November ballot
Sacramento County voters may get a chance next year to improve their commute and combat climate change on a local level. But it will cost them.
A group of city and county leaders is assembling a November 2020 ballot measure that would hike the local sales tax a half cent to improve transportation – with an emphasis on offering alternatives to more roads for more cars. The proposal, called Measure A, could raise more than $8 billion locally over the next 40 years for new bridges, light rail lines, bike paths, freeway interchanges and sidewalks to schools.
A draft proposal is expected to be presented to the Sacramento Transportation Authority board in two weeks, but a debate is already well underway about how much money should go to making car travel easier and how much should go to alternatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A vocal and growing group headed by former Supervisor Roger Dickinson and former Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn is lobbying for a focus on transit, such as light rail and other alternatives to cars. They say it’s time Sacramento built a transportation system that decreases car use and fights global warming.
“Climate change is real,” Cohn said at a recent rally outside an STA board meeting. “We need to change the way we do business.”
But interviews with several members of the STA board suggest the group is looking for a balance of projects that suit rural and suburban residents who must rely on cars, while also offering urban residents efficient non-car options, such as ride-share electric buses, light rail, safer bike lanes and safer urban walking.
“Many specialty groups have come to STA to lobby,” STA board member and Sacramento City Councilman Jeff Harris said. “Our job is to find that sweet spot in the middle.”
Another transportation tax
The task could be tough: Sacramento County transportation officials would have to persuade voters to agree to what would be a third ongoing transportation tax. The county already collects a half-cent sales tax for transportation projects, approved by voters in 2004 and set to last 30 years. Meanwhile, California state officials raised the gas tax in 2018 to provide more money for state and local transportation projects.
Local taxpayer advocates contend those two existing taxes are more than sufficient and that taxpayers are already struggling under the burden of sales tax hikes.
Advocates for Measure A counter that existing transportation taxes do not provide enough for Sacramento County to deal with ongoing needs in a growing community. They also argue that cities and counties need more local funds to put into the pot when they compete for federal and state grants. Many SB1 grants require matching local funds.
Transportation officials in Sacramento County say the county would need another $12 billion over the next 30 to 40 years in order to maintain all roads and build all projects that cities have on their “to do” lists.
For voters in the city of Sacramento, the new tax would increase their total sales tax to nine cents on the dollar spent. Those city voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase last fall to help fund various city projects.
Homelessness and traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is viewed as the second biggest problem the county faces, a recent poll found. (Homelessness is ranked as the county’s number one problem.) Moreover, 79 percent of likely voters say congestion has gotten worse in the last few years.
The telephone poll, conducted by Measure A advocates, suggests county voters would be willing to increase the sales tax if it gets them the projects they want. But the vote will be close.
Some 65 percent of respondents said they would support a 30-year tax, and 62 percent said they would vote for a 40-year tax. Those numbers are below the 67 percent, or two-thirds, majority needed to pass the tax under California election law.
“It’s going to take a lot of work, but there is an opening,” said Measure A consultant David Townsend. His team has been holding meetings with city officials to get a feel for what projects cities need and has talked with public stakeholder groups to see what voters want.
“It’s a very delicate balancing act between what board members want and what public works directors want and what we have heard from (community) stakeholder groups,” Townsend said.
The STA board is expected to review a preliminary project list at its Dec. 12 meeting and vote on a final list Jan. 9. That list will be presented to city councils around the county for their approval. Ultimately, the county Board of Supervisors would vote on whether to put the measure on the November 2020 ballot.
Distribution of Measure A money would be overseen by the STA, an entity whose governing board is made up of various city council members and county supervisors. A taxpayer-oversight committee would monitor the process.
Vote failure in 2016
The current tax effort is in a sense a retry of a previous failed effort. Measure B, which was on the November 2016 ballot, earned 65 percent of the vote, but did not pass because state law requires 67 percent approval.
A Measure B opposition group, Eye on Sacramento, contended a new tax would essentially be a double tax because the county already is getting transportation funds from the existing Measure A half-cent sales tax, which will not sunset until 2039, as well as new revenues from the SB 1 state gas tax. They also argued that local governments spend money inefficiently.
Proponents say they believe they lost the vote in 2016 because they didn’t take enough time to reach out to the public early in the campaign and to get vocal grass-roots support. “The criticism from groups was that the process was too truncated and not inclusive enough,” said STA board member and Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenirer at the time.
A 2016 vote analysis by precinct showed the highest support for the tax was among Sacramento city and Rancho Cordova residents, and county residents living near freeways and light-rail lines. The lowest level of support was found in suburban areas such as Orangevale, Citrus Heights and Elk Grove, as well as in rural areas.
The 2016 plan divvied up the money 70 percent for roads and 30 percent for mass transit. This time around, a higher percentage is expected to go to transit, including light rail and bus rapid transit projects, but it’s undetermined yet what that percentage split would be.
How to spend the tax dollars
The proposal has revived longstanding debates over what projects are best to maintain or increase mobility as the county grows and as technology changes.
Road builders, environmentalists, transit and cycling advocates all have lobbied the STA board, expressing competing interests. That’s led to concern among some STA members that there could be a fracturing of support that would undermine the effort.
STA board member Darren Suen, an Elk Grove councilman, recently called on community leaders not to squabble over percentages, saying a united front is needed. “We are growing as a region,” he said. “We are projecting 600,000 more people by 2040.”
Sacramento Councilman Harris says he wants to fund alternatives to car travel, such as light rail tracks and a station at the city’s planned downtown Major League Soccer stadium. But, he said, good roads are needed for both cars and non-car modes.
“Every form of transportation except rail and air requires roads in passable condition,” he said. “That includes buses, micro transit, bike share, carshare, scooters and even pedestrian travel.”
Harris said he would want some of the funds to go toward construction of a bridge over the American River between downtown and South Natomas, to be used by cars and by a light rail line to the airport, as well as by pedestrians and bicyclists.
Polling shows that, foremost, residents want more repairs and repaving of existing streets. They also said they want transit to be affordable for seniors and the disabled. They ranked safe walking routes to schools as a high priority, but also said they want to see freeway bottlenecks fixed.
Some 84 percent of poll respondents said they supported widening the Capital City Freeway over the American River near Cal Expo to relieve the region’s most congested freeway sections. And 83 percent said they want money to go to extending light rail to Sacramento International Airport.
Sacramento Councilman Steve Hansen and others are pushing for more funds on the American River Parkway, which serves as a bike commute and recreation route and as wildlife habitat.
“We’re not going to just build roads,” Hansen said. “We are going to give people options to get out of cars.
“We have to do many things to get a two-thirds vote, but if it is not a forward leaning plan, it is not going to pass muster. Only talking about roads is a bygone era and we have to evolve beyond that. “
The controversial expressway
The sales tax measure nevertheless likely will provide money for what may be the most controversial road project in the region: the Capital SouthEast Connector, a 34-mile, four-lane beltway that would cut through ranchland behind Folsom and Rancho Cordova.
That connector, essentially an expansion of Grant Line and White Rock roads, already is getting money from the existing Measure A. But proponents said it will need hundreds of millions of dollars more.
City officials in Folsom, Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove say it will serve as a pressure-release valve for congested Highways 99 and 50, offering a secondary route for future east county commuters. But environmentalists and other regional officials say it may have the opposite effect, adding to congestion by encouraging more sprawl-style growth, such as developments south of Highway 50 in Folsom.
Folsom city officials last year gave the go-ahead to some 10,000 new homes on rolling pastures south of Highway 50 and north of White Rock Road that will be reliant on an expanded connector road, but that also will be funneled onto Highway 50 via two new interchanges that also might get Measure A funding support.
This story was originally published November 28, 2019 at 5:00 AM.