Unlike SLOCOG measure, vote requires only simple majority
On January 12 the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) announced a plan for a new dedicated local funding source — a countywide, voter-approved ½-cent sales tax — to generate approximately $35 million annually for local roadway improvements and other transportation projects. The proposed November ballot measure carries one very tall order – it needs two-thirds of SLO County voters to approve of it.
Now as of March 1 there is a new advocate for virtually the same measure. Better Roads For All -San Luis Obispo County – has launched a signature drive as of last week to place the same proposal on the November ballot as a citizen-led initiative that requires only a simple majority (50% plus one vote) to pass.
A citizen-initiated road tax measure in California bypasses the strict supermajority requirement typically associated with local tax increases. Ten year ago a similar road tax measure requiring a two thirds majority -lost by a few hundred votes in San Luis Obispo County. But now, a decade later, a new effort has risen from the ashes.
One of the advocates who organized the citizen group, civil engineer with the Wallace Group, Jorge Aguilar, was there ten years ago and argues the key benefit of such a self-help tax is that it leverages far more money for projects than what it raises here.
Aguilar in their presentation to community groups around the county says we have lost out on funding our neighbor counties have enjoyed. When the similar ballot measure narrowly failed in 2016, our county lost access to hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation funding that went to neighboring counties instead. “Over the past decade, San Luis Obispo County has missed out on an estimated $700 million in infrastructure improvements” he told the Los Osos Community Advisory Committee (LOCAC) last week.