Cities asking state to help on road measures

As public officials around Santa Barbara County gear up once again to ask voters to approve a transportation sales tax, state officials have been asked to make it easier for such local measures to pass.

More specifically, local governments are asking the Legislature to lower the threshold required for voter passage of countywide transportation measures and general obligation bonds.

A proposal to renew a half-percent transportation sales tax in Santa Barbara County is expected to be on the November ballot as Measure A. Under current rules, the measure needs two-thirds voter approval countywide. An attempt to extend but also increase that tax, known as Measure D, to three-quarters of a percent failed in 2006 with 55 percent voter approval.

As part of the state budget process, the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review has been conducting hearings on the relationship between state and local government finances.

The two are connected because the state provides money for local projects and programs but often takes that money away when the state budget is in trouble.

During a recent hearing, local government officials were invited to provide their perspective to the committee and offered some suggestions. One idea put forth by local governments centered on infrastructure funding, which includes transportation, and is an area where cities and counties rely on the state funding.

Local government officials said that if state money isn't going to be available, the state should lower the two-thirds threshold of voter approval to allow cities and counties to more easily generate their own revenue.

“If we are going to be waiting for the state to help us out, we are going to be waiting a long time,” said Dave Mullinax, regional public affairs manager for the League of California Cities.

With a potential for more responsibility falling to local government as a result of state budget cuts, Mullinax added, “if that's the case, let us address our needs.”

He noted that if the state needed to meet the same threshold as local governments, then four of the five infrastructure bonds passed in 2006, which have been praised by state officials, would have failed.

Propositions 1 B, C, D, and E, which deal with security bonds, housing, public education facilities and disaster preparedness each fell short of 66.7 percent voter approval but received a majority vote and therefore passed - because state bonds need only a majority to pass.

The two-thirds threshold was established as part of Proposition 218, which was approved by state voters in 1996, and restricts local governments' ability to raise taxes.

According to the League of California Cities, the group recommended “lower the two-thirds threshold for countywide transportation votes. A number of such county votes have considerable voter support, but fail with voter support in the low 60th percentiles.”

However, no one is predicting whether the idea to lower the threshold will gain any traction.

Republican lawmakers have taken a no-taxes pledge, and lowering the threshold would make it easier to raise taxes, so league officials are not optimistic the idea will pass.

A spokesman for Sen. Bob Dutton, vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, said it would be difficult for such a measure to pass.

Dutton, a Republican, represents the 31st District, which includes San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Voters in the past have supported the current threshold, said Dutton's spokesman Larry Venus, and “Senator Dutton supports the will of the voters.”

In Santa Barbara County the 2006 attempt to renew Measure D, a countywide transportation tax that was originally approved in 1989, failed to reach 66.7 percent.

Countywide, it was approved by a majority of voters - 54 percent - though in the North County it got only 42 percent support.

Officials have attributed part of the failure to the fact that the renewal measure also asked to increase the tax from half a percent to three-quarters of a percent.

However, this time around, officials are looking for a straight renewal of the half-percent measure, now dubbed Measure A, in an effort to raise about $1 billion for the county's transportation needs over 30 years.

Lawmakers have been talking about adjusting the threshold for a long time, said Gregg Hart, spokesman with the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, the group that coordinates state and federal transportation funding in the county and that is coordinating plans for Measure A.

“There was a point about five years ago it seemed to get more attraction at the state level,” Hart said. “But it always runs into the problem of partisan politics.”

SBCAG officials haven't been involved in the current discussions but they are monitoring the talks, Hart said.

“We think we can get the two-thirds vote threshold with the voters this time,” Hart said, but he added, “If circumstances change that make it easier, that would be great.”

The state Senate committee chairwoman, Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, asked that all proposals be submitted in writing by the committee's next meeting, April 24, according to the league of cities.

Talk of adjusting the threshold has been around for a while, Ducheny said, and it needs to be part of a larger fundamental discussion about where money is generated and where it is spent.

“What they are asking for is a valid discussion,” she said.

Malia Spencer can be reached at 739-2219 or mspencer@santamariatimes.com.

April 12, 2008