LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday discussed possibly placing a one-quarter to one-half cent sales tax measure on the November ballot to provide funding for abatement and protection efforts on Clear Lake.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington placed the discussion item on the BOS agenda. He said the tax would provide necessary funding to continue and increase county efforts to abate aquatic weeds and nuisance algae as well as protect lake waters from possible quagga and zebra mussel infestations.
Farrington said the county provided approximately $1 million of one-time money for the current 2011-12 fiscal year to abate those items and protect Clear Lake from quagga and zebra mussel infestations — funds that he said would likely be fully expended after this summer.
Farrington said, “I am requesting that our board place a sales tax proposal to allow Lake County residents the opportunity to vote in support of such a proposal so that if approved the county will have an ongoing source of revenue to sustain and improve our invasive species species program to support our current efforts to make Clear Lake more user friendly, attract tourism, protect resident property values, and financially assist us in our efforts to prevent the infestation of zebra/quagga mussels and/or if infested, provide a source of revenue that will enable the county to mitigate such an infestation.”
He said there were two political ways to approach the issue: a specific tax approach, which has a threshold of 66 percent to be approved; or a general tax approach, which requires a majority to be approved.
Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said the deadline for a measure to be placed on the November ballot was Aug. 7.
Farrington said he liked the specific tax approach, which would specify the money would go solely to the lake.
“The general tax has a lower threshold,” he said. “But with a general tax, there”s no guarantee our successors would use it solely for the lake.”
He said he was leaning toward the 0.5-percent tax option, which would provide an estimated $2.2 million in revenues that would also improve as the economy grows. The tax would be countywide.
BOS Chair Rob Brown asked whether the ballot measure would be voted on by residents in the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake or would it be imposed upon them. Farrington said the intent was for the two cities to pass ordinances similar to the ballot measure on utilizing money for the efforts countywide.
“They would have input in how the money would be spent,” he said, adding representatives from the cities would participate on an advisory board.
District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing said she appreciated the proposal.
“This could be something to rally around,” Rushing said. She suggested adding prevention of algae and aquatic weeds to the proposal.
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith suggested the discussion be continued to the next BOS meeting, where a discussion on the Lake County/City Area Planning Council survey regarding a possible countywide sales tax increase for road improvements was set to take place.
Farrington said this would allow time to discuss options with Lakeport and Clearlake city representatives.
Consensus was given to continue the item to the next BOS meeting.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14. Follow on Twitter: @KevinNHume.
