The San Benito County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution July 24 joining Hollister and San Juan Bautista in calling for a one-percent sales tax to be added to the Nov. 6 ballot.
The Council of San Benito County Governments (COG), acting as the regional transportation agency, adopted an ordinance June 7, called the Transportation, Safety and Investment Plan Transactions (TSIP), along with an ordinance to establish the transaction and use tax. County residents will vote on the measure in November. As a special tax, passage will require approval from two-thirds of voters.
Monies collected will be used to repair potholes, improve and maintain local roads, widen Highway 25, improve pedestrian and bicycle safety projects, provide mobility, bus, and paratransit services for seniors, people with disabilities and youth, and to qualify for state and federal matching funds.
An estimated $16 million per year will be collected over 30 years for approximately $485 million, according to COG Executive Director Mary Gilbert. At least $216 million will target repairs and maintenance of local roads in Hollister, San Juan Bautista and throughout San Benito County. According to Gilbert, the plan is a crucial part of becoming a “self-help” county. Gaining this status, she said, would significantly enable projects in the county to compete for federal and state matching grants.
“Our intention is to use as much state and federal funding as we can to match the local dollars,” Gilbert said. “Being a self-help county gives us new opportunities for leveraging funds that are only available to self-help counties that have specific transportation sales tax measure in place.”
Gilbert also said the tax will support the local community and create jobs with new construction projects, adding that over the next 22 years, there will be a $1.8 billion need for transportation investments. Using all sources of revenue available, she said the county will only receive about $1.1 billion, leaving a shortfall of $700 million.
The plan is divided into three tiers or priorities for projects. Tier One is the widening of Highway 25, which will require bonding in order to move it forward as quickly as possible. Tier Two projects include local roads throughout the 30-year program. Tier Three includes all other projects, such as bicycle and pedestrian safety, as well as administration costs, which are capped at 1 percent.
She said COG will present an annual report to show exactly how much money was collected and what projects were funded. Rehabilitation and maintenance plans, she explained, would be based on each city’s and the county’s individual pavement management plans. Funding for Tier Two projects will be divided 47.5 percent for the county and an equal amount for Hollister. San Juan Bautista will receive five percent.
Board Chairman Anthony Botelho said it’s not enough just to get the measure on the ballot, but, as leaders, each board member “needs to get out and push it to the public.”
County resident Richard Bettencourt asked if the new tax would be added to the city’s existing 8.25 percent tax, increasing it to 9.25 percent. Botelho told him that was the case.
“The people who live in the city ain’t going to like that,” Bettencourt said.
“People are willing to pay more if that road is widened,” Botelho said. “We have the surveys in the COG office that reflects that. There has been a remarkable increase in acceptance from Measure P to this point in time.”
During public comments at the July 24 meeting, Hollister resident Marty Richman, who recently announced he is running for the Hollister City Council District 4 seat, said he supports the measure. He said it’s important to let voters know about the benefits of road repairs up front rather than waiting for monies to accumulate.
“This tax would be eligible for the sale of bonds in advance,” Richman said. “The board should tell the voters that [COG] intend to sell the bonds, like so many capital projects do, and use the money to bring immediate benefit to the people who are going to pay for this. I would rather have them riding on the roads for 30 years where they’re basically paying as they go rather than put the money in an account.”
Botelho, who along with De La Cruz is on the COG board, said it’s COG’s intention to get the tax passed and use bonding opportunities, as Richman suggested.
“We understand for the first couple of years this will be used to fix our local roads,” De La Cruz said. “Whereas the Highway 25 environmental impact report, right-of-ways and other mechanisms come into play. By that time, we’ll have money set aside and have fixed our local roads throughout the whole county. We felt that was the best win-win option for the public to support that requires two-thirds of the votes.”
Gilbert told BenitoLink July 26 even though projects are listed in the three tiers, that doesn’t mean some are less important.
“Our goal is to allow for local streets and roads improvements to be happening even while we’re working towards the Highway 25 widening,” she said. “Each city and the county has project lists, but if something else comes along that is a more urgent need or a community desire, there is flexibility built in there.”
Gilbert said it would be difficult to determine when the widening project would begin.
“Caltrans still has environmental work to do on that project, as well as the final design,” she said. “That’s a four-year process. We don’t have money identified for that and neither do [Caltrans].”
She said the COG submitted an application for a $4 million federal grant to fund the environmental study “to get us over that hump as soon as possible, so we can see some action on that road.”
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