Sales tax increases to improve Sacramento County keep getting rejected. Here’s why | Opinion

It has been nearly 20 years since Sacramento County voters managed to raise the local sales tax to address transportation needs: A measure in 2016 barely missed the required two-thirds voter threshold; a follow-up attempt in 2020 was pulled from the ballot; and then there was the flame-out of Measure A last November.

Measure A’s last iteration was a failed experiment to place a sales tax measure on the ballot through an initiative campaign bankrolled by builders and trade unions. The measure proposed the construction of several roads that weren’t even on the regional planning agency’s list.

While it deserved to fail, Measure A represents the third unsuccessful attempt in just six years to find a combination of transportation investments that voters could approve.

Opinion

A post-mortem of sorts has been quietly happening inside the halls of power among measure backers and transportation advocates. This editorial board has been reflecting as well, and our conclusion is this isn’t the county that it was 20 years ago. Our unmet local needs aren’t just potholes, roads and unfinished trolley lines; our investment needs have evolved. So, too, should any new sales tax proposal for the purpose of generating community revenue.

Here are our three basic principles to build upon:

First, Sacramento County should abandon this failed focus placed solely on transportation, and embrace incentives for smarter use of existing lands in the existing urban core. This is the most cost-effective way to both lower greenhouse gas emissions and maintain mobility in the future region.

Public investments to jump-start redevelopments by expanding existing water and sewer infrastructure, for example, can turn tired industrial or retail strips into next-generation, mixed-use developments with neighborhood retail shops on the first floor and housing up above. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) already has a solution, known as GreenMeansGo. It just needs money.

Second, the county should only fund additional road construction that is envisioned in the existing regional plan.

Put another way, let’s table plans for completing the county’s Southeast Connector Road and set a high political bar for a future SACOG to expand its plan and build new roads. New transportation investments must help the region reduce — not increase — greenhouse gas emissions.

The existing SACOG Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy includes plans to build a portion of the connector road from Elk Grove into El Dorado County from both ends — slightly more than half of the 34-mile alignment in all. Plans call for the northern end to be constructed from near Highway 50 in El Dorado County to Douglas Road in Sacramento County. A southern portion along Grant Line Road to Bradshaw would also be constructed, and the middle 14-mile segment of Grant Line would remain two lanes.

If the region succeeds in accelerating the revitalization of existing retail and industrial corridors with the help of additional local public investments, there likely will never be a need to complete this connector, freeing up public funds for more pressing public needs.

Third, we must abandon the model of the private-funded sales tax initiative.

Elected officials in Sacramento County and the institutions they represent lost control of the process when they effectively ceded control of the sales tax measure to a private group of builders, trade unions and political consultants. The allure was in how this “private” method lowered the voter approval threshold from two-thirds to 50 percent because the measure wasn’t placed on the ballot by a vote of a government body. Turning over Measure A to private interests ended up botching the end product.

The public and our government institutions all deserve a voice in the development of a future sales tax measure. History has shown that getting two-thirds approval is achievable when the package of investments fits the times, and times around here have changed.

We need more diverse housing mix and better transportation in our existing communities. That’s where we should invest.