Note from Xiuhcoatl: GREAT NEWS! Local Measure K DOES NOT PASS! Here is a summary of Local Measure K (Stanislaus County):
Local Measure K is a pure and simple case of taxpayer DECEPTION! Wealthy Building developers and greedy special interest groups want you to pay more in local sales taxes to cover the costs of future development...Working families shouldn't be expected to make the rich even richer...Nearly 80% of the proposed tax increase would directly benefit wealthy individuals in northern Modesto. The vast majority of Stanislaus county residents would be paying increased taxes to improve the roads to the Del Rio Country Club and the Gallo Performing Arts Center. Don't let greedy developers take more of your hard earned dollars.
John Rose - Past President, Stanislaus County Tax Payers Association
Measure K supporters going back to the drawing board
Committee to decide whether to put tax before voters again
By MICHAEL G. MOONEY BEE STAFF WRITER Last Updated: November 9, 2006, 05:13:29 AM PST Source: Modesto Bee
OK. Now what?More than 57 percent of Stanislaus County voters thought Measure K was a good idea, but that wasn't enough.Those who backed the half-cent sales tax hike for road and transit improvements said Wednesday they will spend the next three weeks trying to figure out what went wrong.
"I guess we're in the process of really assessing the election," said Bill Bassitt, a business leader and Measure K backer. "There are no conclusions at this point. Obviously, it (the campaign) was not effective."
Despite spending more than $400,000, the Yes on Measure K campaign fell nearly 10 points below the 66.7 percent "super majority" required for passage under state law.
Opponents spent less than $1,000 in helping derail the proposal.
"Clearly," said Vince Harris, executive director of the Stanislaus Council of Governments, "we're very, very disappointed. The half-cent sales tax is very critical. Without it, we find ourselves on the outside looking in."
Craig Lewis, chairman of the Yes on Measure K campaign, said he expected his committee to announce its intentions in early December.
Lewis said a new version of the measure might be put before the voters.
"We want to bring it back as quick as we can," Lewis said. "We need to determine what the public didn't understand. We've got to figure out why people didn't support it. It should have been a no-brainer."
Without the half-cent sales tax, a portion of the taxes and fees paid by Stanislaus County residents, including gasoline taxes and state vehicle license fees, will keep going to other counties for road and transportation improvements.
That means Stanislaus taxpayers are helping fund large-scale road improvements that aren't being built here.
Measure K was not the only proposed transportation sales tax to fall shy of the supermajority threshold.
Half of the 10 county measures in the state were defeated — in Merced, Amador, Kern and Santa Barbara counties. Existing taxes were renewed in San Joaquin, Fresno and Orange counties.
Of the remaining two new taxes, one was approved — Madera County — while the other — Tulare County — was clinging to a razor-thin lead of 66.74 percent.
In Stanislaus County, Supervisor Jeff Grover, chairman of the Stanislaus Council of Governments board, called Tuesday's vote a "very good start" and said the half-cent transportation sales tax likely would be placed before voters again.
"Naturally, I'm disappointed we didn't get there the first time," Grover said. "We'll just go to work and evaluate when the next time to give it a try would be appropriate."
StanCOG administers state and federal transportation money that comes to the county and its nine cities.
Had the sales tax increase been approved, Stanislaus would have become a "self-help" county, which Harris and other Measure K backers say would have improved the county's position to capture larger shares of state and federal transportation dollars.
Theoretically, a new version of Measure K could be placed before voters in June.
Lewis, however, said that might be too soon.
Merced measure fails again
On Tuesday, for the second time in five months, Merced's transportation tax fell short of the 67 percent super-majority requirement.
Measure G received 60.1 percent of the vote. In the June primary, a similar plan received 62.8 percent of the vote.
Merced officials said Wednesday the earliest they would try again would be November 2008, when the country will be electing a new president.
Should Measure K backers decide to place the issue before Stanislaus County voters again, Lewis hopes to make a stronger case.
"We need to understand what our citizens want," Lewis said. "Surveys say traffic is one of the top three concerns in this county.
"We need to determine what the public didn't understand (about Measure K)."
Harris, too, wants another shot.
"It's really disheartening for the entire valley," he said. "The super majority is a very difficult challenge (but) I would say absolutely try again. You've got to try again, it's too important."
Former Modesto Councilman Bill Conrad, who opposed Measure K, said he and others would fight a new version of the failed proposal.
"We definitely don't want to see it come back as a tax," Conrad said Wednesday. "We're already taxed too much."
Super-majority requirement
The super-majority requirement resulted from a 1995 California Supreme Court ruling.
The high court determined that local sales taxes for a "specific" purpose, like a transportation tax, must be approved by a two-thirds majority. General purpose taxes require only a simple majority — 50 percent plus one vote — for passage.
Lewis, Bassitt and Harris all suggested a campaign may be waged in Sacramento to find a legislative way around the 67 percent super-majority requirement.
"We're missing out on millions in matching fund dollars," Lewis said, "and we're losing economic development opportunities to create more jobs."
Bee staff writer Michael G. Mooney can be reached at 578-2384 or
Last Updated ( Nov 09, 2006 at 01:24 PM )
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