A majority of participating voters in the City of Clearlake — 57.1 percent — approved the sales tax increase Measure L, but it failed to achieve a necessary two-thirds majority.
Semiofficial election results released by the Lake County Registrar of Voters indicate that out of 5,795 registered voters in Clearlake, only 1,775 ballots were cast in the Tuesday, June 6 election — representing voter turnout of only 30.6 percent. Of these participating voters, 57.1 percent voted in favor of Measure L, which would have increased the city”s sales tax by one half-cent with the funds being applied toward road maintenance.
“I think that”s what really hurt the thing,” said Chuck Leonard, who headed the Committee to Approve Road Repairs (CARR). “I think a lot of people were for it, but they weren”t motivated to vote. The people who were against it were motivated.”
Two additional measures on Clearlake”s June 6 ballot would have changed the positions of city clerk and city treasurer from elected to appointed ones; these were defeated at the polls.
Leonard said the committee may try again with a sales tax increase for the November 2006 ballot but that educating and motivating people will be crucial to any ballot measure”s success. “When we had our forum, we paid $250 for the Clearlake Senior/Community Center,” he said. “We had 25 people show up.” Leonard added that as many or less than that number attended a Democratic Party forum.
Measure L would have increased the city sales tax from 7.75 percent to 8.25 percent. CARR projected that had Measure L passed, it would have generated $600,000 annually for road maintenance in Clearlake, which would have supplemented existing funding levels that the city would be required to maintain.
A Pavement Management Program (PMP) update, recently completed for the Lake County/City Area Planning Council (APC)”s Transportation Planning Work Program, has determined that Clearlake would have to invest $450,000 a year in maintenance to prevent further degradation of what the report characterized as roads in “very poor or poor condition.”
Contact Cynthia Parkhill at cparkhill@clearlakeobserver.com.
