I voted against the Measure A sales tax. One of the reasons for my opposition is that it represented double taxation. 

Every car owner in Santa Barbara County pays state gas tax at the pump to fund our Highway 101 system. We are one of the few counties that is classified as a “self-help” county. San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties are not.

This is significant because residents of San Luis Obispo County did not contribute one penny of their local tax revenue for the Highway 101 Cuesta Grade expansion.

Ventura County residents did not pay one penny of their local tax revenue for a major expansion on 101 between Ventura and Oxnard. These major projects were funded from the state gas tax we in Santa Barbara County contributed.

The people of Santa Barbara County paid over $10 million of our local sales tax revenue to fund the six-lane Highway 101 freeway expansion from Orcutt to the Santa Maria river bridge. Now, Mayor Larry Lavagnino is proposing to spend an additional $10 million of our sales tax revenue to help fund the Highway 101 bridge improvement.

Now, with the Measure A sales tax revenue, our elected officials are considering spending over $40 million to expand the freeway in south Santa Barbara County. 

There is no argument that the Santa Maria 101 bridge and the freeway expansion in south Santa Barbara County are needed, but why do we have to pay, when residents of San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties do not have to pay for major Highway 101 improvements in their respective counties?

In reality, the people of Santa Barbara County are subsidizing these state projects by being a ludicrous “self-help county.”

How did we get suckered into such an inequitable situation? Andy Caldwell, representing COLAB, supported Measure A, and lobbied for state highway subsidies. For the record, Andy is a resident of San Luis Obispo County, where not one penny of his tax dollar subsidize the 101 highway system, such as the Cuesta Grade improvement.

The other purported tax watchdog is the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, represented by Joe Amendariz. He is a city councilman from Carpinteria. He is pushing for the south Santa Barbara County freeway expansion, using Measure A sale tax fund, as this project would make his city more accessible for the huge Southern California market.

He has a justifiable economic incentive. However, to support double taxation on Santa Barbara County residents for his community is unfair.

Many local organizations supported Measure A because their pet projects were on the wish list. These projects were not mandated, but left to the discretion of politicians and influential special-interest groups.

After the election, they were on the bottom of Measure A spending priorities, and may never get funded. Sadly, they were bamboozled by our local politicians and special interests to get their support for the sales tax increase. 

To correct the inequities of Measure A, the residents of Santa Barbara County could amend it by mandating the money be spent for local projects only. No subsidies for state and federal highway projects, which will eliminate double taxation and our ludicrous designation as a self-help county.

The hypocrisy of our local elected officials complaining about the state taking traditional local revenue away and then rewarding the state by subsidizing their responsibility of taking care of the state highway system can only be construed as illogical stupidity. 

Toru Miyoshi is a former Santa Maria City Council member, and 5th District county supervisor.