By Doug Porter
Of all the local measures on the ballot, none has split local Democrats, labor, and environmental groups more than Measure A. It proposes to fund transportation and open space projects throughout San Diego County over the next 40 years via a half-cent sales tax increase. Questions about its environmental and social consequences have been raised.
The plan, crafted by the staff of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), will raise $18 billion over its lifetime, with $4.3 billion doled out to local communities for upgrades and repairs.
Just about everybody agrees that work on local and regional infrastructure needs to continue. It’s how we get there that’s causing disagreement.
Recent Disputes
Opponents to Measure A went to court recently seeking revisions in the official ballot arguments.
From the Union-Tribune:
As a result of San Diego County Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal’s order, there will be a slight change to the official argument in support of Measure A on November’s ballot. Instead of saying that the sales tax increase will reduce the cost of mass transit fares for seniors, students, the disabled and veterans, it will instead say that it will provide money to expand mass transit services for those groups.
The ballot measure’s opponents also contended that the supporters’ argument inaccurately stated that the funds will definitively improve water quality, but Bacal did not order any changes there.
The organizations opposing as well as supporting Measure A both claimed a legal victory.
Strange Bedfellows
In a nutshell, supporters of Measure A say it’s a good plan and the best they can do without endangering the possibility of getting the support of a super-majority of voters.
There are some building trades and municipal employee unions along with enviro advocates like the Nature Conservancy on the same side with the Chamber of Commerce and the Taxpayers Association supporting the proposal.
Graphic from SANDAG
Many environmentalist and labor groups say it falls way short of doing what’s needed to mitigate climate change. The Democratic Party of San Diego County officially agrees with the No on A position.
Those opposing the measure include the Quality of Life Coalition (progressive labor, community & environmental groups).
Also disapproving of Measure A is the Republican Party of San Diego, which would likely oppose any measure unless it involved child labor, slave wages, coal burning cars, and no taxes.
It’s Complicated (Or Not)
SANDAG’s plan was administrative sausage-making at its best. It boiled down to two proposals essentially pitting public transit projects against local infrastructure.
Here’s how Voice of San Diego described the differences:
The local plan would send $7.3 billion, or 40 percent of all the money the measure brings in, to individual cities to spend how they see fit. San Diego would receive $2.8 billion of that local funding, for instance. The unincorporated areas of the county would get $1 billion. Chula Vista would get $539 million.
That plan would spend another $5.5 billion (30 percent) on transit projects and operations, and $1.8 billion (10 percent) on new highway projects.
The regional plan, meanwhile, spends half its money on transit. Sounds good if you like transit, right?
But it spends zero dollars on local infrastructure projects – and transit advocates like the idea of improving local infrastructure, too. Meanwhile, it also sends more than $3 billion to highway projects, not quite twice as much as the local plan would spend on highways.
What emerged to be placed on the ballot had 42% for public transit projects; 14% for highway improvements; 30% for cities to spend on local infrastructure; 11% for open space preservation and 3% for walking and biking projects. The proposed Purple Trolley line from San Ysidro to Kearney Mesa would have a 15-year deadline.
It sounds like a compromise until you realize that SANDAG’s agenda should be broader than simply funding construction projects.
Opponents point out that there is no mechanism linking projects with reducing greenhouse gasses to meet state targets, which is kind of a big deal.
There’s more to this, including a sense that the staff at SANDAG played a larger role in advocacy than many would like. The impacts on vulnerable communities, a commitment to Project Labor Agreements, funding for vital stormwater and water infrastructure projects, along with conservation, open space, and active transportation are also sticking points.
Measure A opponents have sent a cease and desist letter to SANDAG, claiming it’s using public funds to promote the plan.
I’m keeping this short today because over the next few weeks we’ll present some of the arguments being made by progressives and (hopefully) the rational side of Measure A’s supporters.
Suffice it to say that I personally am strongly inclined to oppose the measure. I think it comes down to doing our bit to save the planet versus political pragmatism.
Debate Tonight
The Democratic Woman’s Club is hosting a debate this evening (Monday, Sept. 19) featuring Anthony Montalvo, Outreach Manager for Citizens for a Better San Diego (Pro A) and Gretchen Newsom, Political Director for IBEW 569, part of the coalition opposing Measure A.
The debate will take place starting at 6:30 at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), 4089 Fairmount Ave, San Diego (map)
The building is on the southeast corner of Polk and Fairmount, just north of University. Parking is also available at the adjoining Southern Sudanese and East African Community Centers on Fairmount Ave. Bus routes 7 and 13.
For More Information:
Measure A
Ballot Language–SAN DIEGO COUNTY ROAD REPAIR, TRANSIT, TRAFFIC RELIEF, SAFETY AND WATER QUALITY MEASURE Shall an ordinance be adopted to: repair roads, deteriorating bridges; relieve congestion; provide every community funds for pothole/street repairs; expand public transit, including improved services for seniors, disabled, students, veterans; reduce polluted runoff; preserve open space to protect water quality/reduce wildfires by enacting, with independent oversight/audits, a 40-year, half-cent local sales tax ($308 million annually) that Sacramento cannot take away?
A YES vote would: support raising the county sales tax by half a cent for the next 40 years for transportation and infrastructure.
A NO vote would: not raise taxes. The transportation projects that could be funded are part of SANDAG’s long-term plan. Funding for others would be uncertain.
***
Finally, an impassioned speech by Leonardo DiCaprio about climate change at the United Nations answering (I think) the question posed in the headline.
For information on the November 2016 General Election, see our San Diego 2016 Progressive Voter Guide
Other San Diego Free Press coverage of the 2016 general election.
Tomorrow: Measure B, the Lilac Hills Proposal. We’ll be writing about various state and local contests Monday-Friday for the next five weeks.
On This Day: 1955 – Eva Marie Saint, Frank Sinatra, and Paul Newman starred in the “Producer’s Showcase” presentation of “Our Town” on NBC-TV. 1981 – Between 400,000 and 500,000 unionists converged on Washington D.C., for a Solidarity Day march and rally protesting Republican policies. 1986 – U.S. health officials announced that AZT, though an experimental drug, would be made available to AIDS patients.
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Doug Porter
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Question for the author: Why not explain that Measure A, along with everything else it proposes to do, would be an $18 billion countywide
sales tax increase? Is a clear statement like that not politically correct for local journalists to put out there?
So you didn’t like my phrasing.
I did say it was “a half-cent sales tax increase” and next paragraph (one sentence in between) “will raise $18 billion over its lifetime.”
If that constitutes political correctness in your dictionary, mazel tov.
Don Wood also fails to note that the 1/2-cent sales tax increase would amount to $18 billion provided by more than three million county residents over the 40-year term it’s in effect. But because he’s using rhetoric to tease us he doesn’t have to pay attention to anything but buzz words like “politically correct.”
Doug, love your work but he said it better.
There’s already a half cent sales tax going to SANDAG under the TransNet program which was extended to 2048. How many half cent sales tax increases do they need?
Measure A will enable SANDAG to continue business as usual. When CalTrans is planning on reducing vehicle miles travel (VMT) by 15% in the next five years to meet State green house gas reduction targets and others have calculated that we need to reduce VMT in our region by 15% of current levels and 35% per capita by as early as 2030, SANDAG is planning on spending over $40 Billion expanding freeways and roads. We need to reallocate what we have. And why another regressive sales tax when low income families are already paying more than their share for transportation systems they don’t need?
I actually don’t mind paying taxes if I believe they’re being used responsibly. Taxes are the way we, as a community, take care of business. The SANDAG proposal, though, is NOT a responsible plan. It does not adequately address the challenge of climate change for our region (yes, that’s a real thing). That is the reason I will be voting against this misguided proposition.
It’s deeply saddening to see so many climate change-focused environmentalists and progressives opposing Measure A despite significant funding for public transit. It’s a nice change to see this article make passing mention of the funding for open space. But this element of Measure A deserves much greater attention.
Eleven percent of Measure A funding would provide a long-awaited and unprecedented $2 BILLION in funding for preservation of natural open space and endangered species habitat. This in turn will leverage many millions more in state and federal funding.
Preservation of natural open spaces is important for obvious reasons and we’re running out of time before our last special natural places are lost to development. But what’s been entirely missed by climate activists and progressives who don’t understand the open space funding is the fact that the open space and habitat lands to be purchased with Measure A funds are the very lands that would otherwise be developed with climate change-inducing urban sprawl. Opposing Measure A because just 3% (3%!) of the measure’s funding will go to general purpose freeway and highway lanes makes no sense when those new lanes will have no bearing whatsoever on climate change-inducing car trips (the lack of freeway capacity doesn’t stop local governments from approving new sprawl development). And the $2 billion of Measure A funding for open space will buy the very land where sprawl would otherwise be approved.
Climate change should be fought vigorously at every opportunity. But it should also be recognized that climate change is fully underway with resulting massive harm to people and nature and that preservation of natural lands in San Diego County is a critical means to provide for long-term resiliency and recovery of nature and humankind alike.