Half-Cent Sales Tax for Transportation Projects Loses Out

The Orange County Transportation Commission on Monday decided not to pursue placement of a half-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot.

The proposal for a sales tax measure, which could have raised an estimated $1.8 to $2.2 billion for transportation projects over the next 15 years, was passed over by commissioners worried that the timing was wrong.

Defeat for a November sales tax measure came when the commission voted 4-2 on a public relations campaign to poll county residents on transportation issues, but declined to direct any of the effort toward a sales tax campaign.

“We’re simply not ready,” said Clarice Blamer, head of the transportation commission. “We have to get broad-based public support. This kind of haste is a prescription for failure.”

The action came despite pleas from Orange County business groups that the commission delay any action until after results come in on several transportation measures before state and county voters in June.

“I plead with you to leave (the November ballot option) open,” said Bruce Nestande, a member of the California Transportation Commission and an employee of Arnel Development Co.

Representatives from the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial League of Orange County also asked the commission to wait.

Haunting the meeting, however, was the ghost of Proposition A, a 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax proposal that was defeated overwhelmingly by Orange County voters in June, 1984, despite a well-financed campaign.

Many county officials have said they believe the measure was defeated, in part, because voters were not properly educated about the dire need for transportation funds in Orange County.

“It is imperative that we learn from our mistakes in 1984,” Blamer said.

Orange County is the only heavily populated county in the state without a transportation sales tax.

The $190,000 public relations campaign voted for by the commission will include a series of public workshops on a 20-year master plan for Orange County transportation projects and the formation of a 40-member citizens committee of business and community leaders to help prepare the master plan.

The commission’s decision not to direct any of the campaign to polling or briefing the public about a November sales tax measure effectively delays any consideration of a sales tax measure until 1989 or 1990, said Stanley T. Oftelie, the commission’s executive director.

“You will blow away the November election,” Oftelie told commission members before the vote. “Mathematically you have a chance . . . but it’s next to impossible.”

To reach the ballot, the tax proposal, which first must be outlined by the commission, would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors as well as a majority of the cities representing a majority of the county, Oftelie said.

Under the time frame presented to commissioners Monday, if a sales tax proposal were to be drafted for placement on the November ballot, only two weeks would have been available to get public input, to draft the measure and to assess its chance of acceptance through a quick poll.

In all, Oftelie said, such a sales tax measure would have had to be drafted and modified after the June 7 county and state elections, and approved by the commission, cities and county supervisors within a tight schedule of eight weeks.

“I don’t think we want to be seen as cramming something down the public’s throat,” said Commission member Harriett M. Wieder, who also is chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

In other action Monday, the commission approved a request to exempt Orange County from stricter air quality rules issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Under the exemption, which must be approved by the AQMD and the federal government, Orange County employers of 100 or more workers could use smog-cutting measures for their commuting employees other than ride-sharing pools.