LAKEPORT — The Lakeport City Council voted Tuesday to support a countywide transportation sales tax measure for the November ballot and direct staff to work on the accompanying expenditure plan.
The 3-1 decision — with Councilman Tom Engstrom in dissent — came during the regular meeting at Lakeport City Hall Tuesday evening. Councilman Bob Rumfelt was absent.
The proposal for a 0.5-percent increase in sales tax across Lake County would likely need approval from all three jurisdictions in order to pass, City Engineer Scott Harter told the council.
“There are ever-diminishing sources of revenue, and if we pass a local sales tax measure, that money stays local and we can apply it to where the needs really are,” Harter said.
The proposal is in its early stages, with the ballot language and expenditure plan not finalized, according to Phil Dow, who spoke on behalf of Lake County/City Area Planning Council (APC) staff consultant Dow & Associates.
Any money generated by the tax — estimated as $2.5 million annually — would be used to improve existing roads in the two cities and the unincorporated areas, Dow said.
“We have such a backlog of taking care of what we already have. With this particular pot of money, we”re not even talking about building new roads or anything like that,” he added.
The potential funds are “only going to slow the descent” of city road deterioration, Harter said.
Dow shared results of recent polling done by an APC-contracted consultant.
The survey results showed different levels of support among the people polled, but about 68 percent were in favor of a test ballot measure, Dow said. Such a measure would need approval from more than two-thirds of voters.
“It looks like it has a decent shot of passing,” Dow said.
Mayor Stacey Mattina indicated support for the regional approach to fixing the county”s poorly ranked roads. “It would be great if we could focus on the roads that we all use and make a difference,” she said.
However, Engstrom and Councilwoman Suzanne Lyons said they felt as if they were being rushed into making a decision Tuesday.
“We”re asking people in a recession to spend more money,” Engstrom said. “I just would like to have all of the information on how this is going to work before I can say, ”yeah, I can support that.””
Harter told council members that they would have the opportunity to decide about the pending aspects of the proposal at a later time but that initial support was needed before more planning occurred.
“Right now, we all need to be together in this thing,” Councilman Roy Parmentier said.
Parmentier made the motion to support the countywide sales tax for roads and to direct staff to work through the Technical Advisory Committee to develop an expenditure plan.
Lyons waited several seconds before seconding the motion, which received three votes of approval.
Dow said deadlines to qualify for the November ballot are approaching. Harter indicated additional information could be brought back to the council on July 17.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors will consider the proposed transportation sales tax during its meeting next week.
