A potential sales tax measure to support regional transportation needs could wind up on the November General Election ballot.
Council of San Benito County Governments (COG) Executive Director Mary Gilbert addressed this at the May 7 Hollister City Council meeting and said more than $1.8 billion is needed to accomplish road projects over the next 22 years. The COG board is considering going forward with a one-cent sales tax ballot measure this November.
COG, the regional planning agency for San Benito County, conducted a survey in March to gauge resident support of a transportation sales tax measure. The survey targeted voters likely to turn out in November and was conducted by “hybrid phone and email-to-web” survey, Gilbert said. The agency conducted 417 interviews in English and Spanish, with a +/- 4.8 margin of error. Gilbert said the number one issue with participants was traffic and road maintenance, with most respondents recognizing the need for additional funding.
“There was some indication of distrust of local officials and anti-tax sentiments,” Gilbert said. “But voters do believe that transportation investments are important, even if it means raising taxes. A one-cent sales tax measure to fund a range of transportation improvements is supported by over two-thirds of likely voters, which is the threshold we would need to meet during an election.”
Spending would be locally controlled because it is a source for local revenue, Gilbert said, and money raised could potentially be matched by state and federal funds.
“There’s also an annual formula share, which we’re estimating at $132,000 for a county of our size,” Gilbert said. “It’s based on population. There are also competitive grants [of over $10 million].”
Gilbert told Hollister council members that COG is working on an update of its 22-year Regional Transportation Plan. Looking at standard state and federal funding sources for the $1.8 billion, Gilbert said there is an assumption the county will receive $1.1 billion over the 22-year timeframe. That leaves a $700 million shortfall.
So called ‘self-help’ taxes like the proposed COG ballot measure must include a detailed expenditure plan, and Gilbert added that it would be included on the ballot.
San Benito County is one of six other counties (Mendocino, Lake, Sierra, Alpine, Mendocino, and Madera) throughout California with an average pavement condition index of 46 out of 100, Gilbert said, which is considered poor and significantly worse than the state average of 64. To simply maintain county roads at their present condition would cost upwards of $350 million.
The executive director for the regional transportation agency also spoke about expected funding from Senate Bill 1, a 2017 state-enacted law that funnels money to local jurisdictions for road maintenance, repairs, and projects via raised gas taxes and vehicle registration fees. Annually, San Benito County is expected to receive $2.2 million, the City of Hollister $835,000, and the City of San Juan Bautista $300,000.
“The Highway 156 project is fully funded and will go into construction in the next few years,” Gilbert said. “We completed construction of the Highway 25 bypass about 10 years ago, and there have been major safety improvements on Highway 25 between Hollister and Santa Clara County. We’ve also invested a significant amount of time and money on the Highway 25 widening since the early 2000s.”
After completing the community survey in March, COG started working on a safety and investment plan. The agency is now in a phase of community engagement, Gilbert said.
“If COG continues down this path and approves something, it would be coming to the city council for approval,” Gilbert said. “We are looking towards the November 2018 election.”
All potential components of the measure are supported by a majority of those responding to the survey, Gilbert said, with Highway 25 and road maintenance at the top of the priority list. She broke down support by demographics and said that 80 percent of young voters 18-49, and 78 percent of Latinos are particularly supportive.
“The most frequent voters are the least supportive of the measure,” Gilbert pointed out, adding that 58 percent would still vote in favor of the measure. “That’s a thing we have to watch out for.”
COG Board Member and Hollister Councilman Jim Gillio said there needs to be no flexibility to vary off the long-range plan.
“You heard the public doesn’t trust the government, including local government, so you need to have a very specific and strict accountability standard,” Gillio said. “It should be spelled out for everyone, to show the money will be spent appropriately.”
Support of the measure is soft because even with a high percentage claiming they favor the measure, if they’re given positive information the support only rises by one percent, but if they’re given negative or opposition information, support decreases and the drop in support is much more substantial, resident Marty Richman said.
“You have to look for the reasons support is soft,” Richman told the council. “The key is they don’t trust the local politicians. Most of the people who have that mistrust believe these things are manipulated politically. It’s unfortunate that I have the same opinion. They’re manipulated politically for reasons no one wants to talk about.”
See the presentation provided by Mary Gilbert below.
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