Sales Tax Measures For Roads, Libraries Likely Headed For November Ballot

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted today to place a quarter-cent sales tax hike on the November ballot.

The measure that will raise an estimated $20 million annually will need the approval of 50 percent of the voters plus one vote.

On Aug. 5, the board will consider placing on the November ballot a companion advisory measure directing 90 percent of the tax revenue be spent on road maintenance and 10 percent on transit in the unincorporated areas of the county and in its nine cities and towns.

The advisory measure also will need a simple majority approval by the voters. Under the long-term road maintenance plan, $40 million will be spent annually to improve roads in the county.

Half of that amount will be dedicated to pavement preservation. The $40 million includes the ongoing use of existing revenue of $23.4 million, $8 million from the county’s general fund budget and the county’s $8.7 million share of the $20 million tax revenue.

The county’s eight cities and the Town of Windsor will share the remaining $11.3 million sales tax revenue for roads.

The annual $40 million will allow the county to bring 700 miles of the 1,348 miles of roads in the county up to good condition in 10 years and improve all roads in the county over the next 20 years.

The Sonoma County Transportation Authority will provide administration and oversight of the tax revenue.

The Board of Supervisors has spent about $8 million in one-time funding on roads in each of the last three years. Board members today called road maintenance a “legacy issue” that has not been adequately financed over the past 30 years.

The Board this afternoon also approved placing a one-eighth cent sales measure on the Nov. 4 ballot for the county library system’s operations, programs, construction and modernization in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Sonoma County.

The library tax, not to exceed 10 years, will generate $10 million annually.

A final vote on the library tax proposal is scheduled for Aug. 5. Both tax proposals face an Aug. 8 deadline to be included on the Nov. 4 ballot.

--Bay City News