Sacramento County voters must reject Measure A, an $8.5 billion gift to special interests

Sacramento County Measure A would not only impose a regressive tax at a time of historic inflation. It’s also an attempt to circumvent the democratic processes and expertise that have shaped the region’s transportation policy for decades.

It’s imperative that voters reject it.

The proposal was sponsored and dishonestly crafted by political operatives, mega-developers and other special interests seeking to benefit from more than $8.5 billion in taxpayer money. They concocted an initiative loaded with pet projects that will make them rich, counting on voter apathy in a midterm election and understandable frustration with the condition of local roads and infrastructure.

A coalition of powerful real estate, business and trade groups dubbed the Committee for a Better Sacramento, which believes rules are merely obstacles to overcome, disguised the proposal as a routine inquiry about increasing the sales tax. But Measure A is not ordinary. If voters approve it, they will bind the Sacramento region to the 20th-century transportation habits and sprawling growth patterns that have clogged our roads and polluted our air. And they will squander the last 0.5% in sales tax that Sacramento, Isleton and Rancho Cordova can levy by law.

Entities owned by mega-developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos and the Cordova Hills Development Corp. were the largest underwriters of signature-gathering efforts toward exploiting the citizens’ initiative process and a state Supreme Court loophole. The interests behind the measure cherry-picked projects that benefit their bottom lines, including costly road and highway expansions that experts across California have deemed unnecessary.

At least 26 of the projects in Measure A are not included in long-range transportation plans that govern the six-county region. These projects, worth $3.5 billion, threaten the region’s climate goals, according to an analysis by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, or SACOG, the region’s chief planning authority. Violating the state-mandated goals would not only increase pollution but also cut off access to state and federal funds that support housing and infrastructure projects across the region.

To avoid that, SACOG officials, attorneys and political operatives spent months negotiating a so-called memorandum of understanding that restores a semblance of oversight to mitigate environmental harm. In an attempt to overcome glaring weaknesses in the memo, which is susceptible to political influence and future amendments, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg vowed to sponsor state legislation to codify the agreement. But the very existence of the memorandum and the need for legislation highlight the measure’s problems. With so much at stake for the region’s six counties — Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba — relying on such porous promises is a gamble.

The project most coveted by the interests behind the measure and most harmful to the Sacramento area is the long-sought Southeast Capital Connector. Pitched as needed to link Folsom and Elk Grove, the 34-mile expressway would unlock more rural land to developers and pull investments away from the cities and suburbs where the region can sustainably grow. By enabling sprawl in far-flung corners of the county, voters could undermine the only climate-friendly alternatives the region has left.

Sacramento Regional Transit District General Manager Henry Li, whose agency is neutral on Measure A but adamant about the need for more transit funding, conceded as much in an interview with The Bee’s Editorial Board. When pressed about light rail expansions promised to the public under Measure A, Li acknowledged “that maybe I even have doubts” about them, suggesting that the transit projects being sold to voters may not be realized.

Measure A is a flagrant abuse of political power and the initiative process. Leading campaign figures such as Region Business Association CEO Joshua Wood and California Alliance for Jobs CEO Michael Quigley appear to be counting on getting their way based on voters’ legitimate frustration with the region’s transportation infrastructure and the overall politics of voters county-wide. But voters should not reward the special interests misleading the public with 40 years of taxpayer money for projects that handcuff us to unsustainable sprawl and congestion.

The capital region can do better. Measure A should be resoundingly rejected.