Stanislaus County leaders approve funds to assess transit tax support

Leaders agreed Wednesday to spend $50,000 on focus groups and an opinion poll to gauge enthusiasm for a transportation tax throughout Stanislaus County.

If support is adequate, voters would be asked in November 2016 to increase the sales tax a half-percent to support road, rail and other transit projects. A decision is expected by late summer, after poll results are analyzed.

Focus groups, starting this month, will help determine the public’s mood on specific projects. Typically, tax revenues go to help fix existing roads and build new ones, with some reserved for transit projects such as expanding commuter train service from Lathrop to Modesto, Turlock and Merced.

“I think, realistically, we can expect ACE (Altamont Corridor Express trains) to be here not in decades, but years,” said Stanislaus Council of Governments Vice Chairman Bill Zoslocki, also a Modesto councilman. He noted that local roads are “seriously in disrepair,” and that boosting the transportation network would provide an economic shot in the arm.

A majority of Stanislaus voters backed transportation measures in 2006 and 2008, but both fell short of the required two-thirds supermajority approval, or 66.67 percent.

Gauging support is crucial to crafting a successful ballot measure, county Supervisor Terry Withrow said. “We want to find out what the public wants and how they want this money to be spent,” he said.

Also to be determined is how long the transportation tax would last.

Once priorities are determined, Withrow said, the key will be spreading the word on what it means to become a self-help county, a name for places that help themselves lure much more state and federal transportation money by agreeing to a sales tax hike. A portion of regular sales tax proceeds from places without such surtaxes, such as Stanislaus, flow into other self-help counties.

“If you put a dollar in and get four back, that’s a good return on investment,” said Withrow, who also is a certified public accountant. “The most frustrating part is that we all pay in and our dollars leave this county and go somewhere else to work on their roads. If we get that message out, I think we’ve got a good chance here.”

Replacing bridges and building regional expressways can leverage an even higher ratio of state and federal road money, county Supervisor Jim DeMartini noted, compared with lesser amounts available for local road repair, which tends to garner more taxpayer support.

About 81 percent of California’s population lives in the 19 counties with such surtaxes. Stanislaus and Merced are among the most populated without transportation taxes.

Critics cite families’ economic hardship and distrust of government.

Recent attempts to raise sales taxes failed in Stanislaus’ largest two cities, Modesto and Turlock, with some proceeds reserved for roads in Modesto, and all in Turlock.

Turlock Mayor Gary Soiseth said, “All options remain on the table, but I believe transportation should be look at regionally.” Some participants said lessons might be learned from failed measures, as well as from an early 2014 public survey that showed lukewarm support for a transportation tax, killing the idea of putting a measure before voters last fall.

This story was originally published May 21, 2015 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Stanislaus County leaders approve funds to assess transit tax support."