Sales tax for transportation coming for voter approval in November

Half-cent for roads proposed once again

By KEVIN COURTNEY
Napa Valley Register

Citing Napa County’s worsening streets and road, local leaders will try to put a half-cent transportation sales tax on the November ballot.

Unlike June 2006, when a similar tax lost at the polls, supporters will commit more money to fix local streets, with less money for big highway projects.

The Napa Valley Transportation Authority will ask local city councils to approve a road improvement plan this summer, with voters to be asked in November to approve a half-cent, 30-year sales tax to pay for it.

Supporters said they learned a lot when Napa County voters rejected a first attempt at a transportation tax two years ago.

The earlier plan “was like a Christmas tree,” American Canyon Mayor Leon Garcia said Wednesday. “There was too much stuff on it. It got confusing to people.”

The new plan keeps it simple, with 70 percent of revenue going to local jurisdictions to fix streets and roads, which are among the worst in the Bay Area, said Jim Leddy, the NVTA’s executive director.

“The earlier measure was overly complicated. It needs to focus on basic needs,” Leddy said Thursday.

In 2006, Measure H committed 50 percent of revenues for street and road repair. Most of the other 50 percent would have financed highway improvements along the Jamieson Canyon-Highway 29 corridor south of Napa.

Measure H failed with 53 percent voter approval. It required nearly 67 percent to pass.

Since then, local streets have only gotten worse. “The need speaks for itself,” said Napa Mayor Jill Techel.

Leddy will be working with city managers to see if an expenditure plan can be put together in May for the Napa Valley’s five city councils to review.

This will be a much simpler process than last time, Leddy told members of the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency, who also serve as the Napa Valley Transportation Authority.

If 70 percent of more than $500 million in revenue goes to pothole repair, that will leave much less for local jurisdictions to wrangle over. Leddy expects that most of the remaining 30 percent to fund several American Canyon projects, an interchange at Highway 29/Jamieson Canyon Road and a flyover at Highways 221/12, east of the Butler Bridge.

The city of Napa may decide to make widening  the First Street overpass at Highway 29 a priority, while three traffic circles are being talked about for Highway 29 in Rutherford and two locations in Calistoga, he said.

Some money will be reserved for pedestrian and bicycle safety and enhancement of transit, Leddy said.

Missing from any new list of projects will be the widening of Jamieson Canyon Road/Highway 12 to four lanes. This was the “star” project of Measure H as well as a source of controversy among those who feared it would induce growth in Napa County and shift a state responsibility to local taxpayers.

Planning for the widening of Jamieson Canyon is proceeding, thanks to statewide voters approving Prop. 1B in November, 2006. Napa is getting $74 million from Prop. 1B for Jamieson, with Napa and Solano counties putting up $53 million.

In presenting the case for another sales tax effort, Leddy said Napa County and its cities need a source of transportation revenue that is steady and under local control.

Seven of the nine Bay Area counties have passed local transportation taxes for these reasons. State and federal funding is woefully inadequate and will only get worse given today’s deteriorating fiscal climate, he said.

The state increasingly awards highway construction funds to counties able to pony up a share of costs, Leddy said. Because Napa is not a “self-help” county, it lost out on another $22 million from Prop. 1B for Jamieson Canyon, he said.

Although Jamieson Canyon is going to be widened to four lanes, this is going to be an economy job, without full median barrier and minimal re-engineering of the route, he said.

Although gasoline prices are at a record high and the economy is slowing, sales tax supporters think a November election can work. Only 40 percent of voters turned out for Measure H, while twice as many can be expected at a presidential election.

Earlier this year, a private group of employers, Citizens for Safety and Congestion Relief, financed a poll about the prospects of another transportation tax.

The results were “very encouraging,” the group’s chair, Ron Profili, said in February. A measure that focuses on local roads has a good chance of passing, he said.

Calistoga Councilman Michael Dunsford worried Wednesday that Leddy wasn’t leaving a lot of time to work out an expenditure plan if there are disagreements between the cities and the county. The Board of Supervisors must approve a measure for the November ballot in August.

“The needs are very simple,” Leddy said. “There isn’t a community without potholes that need working on.”

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009