According to the results of a countywide poll, Santa Barbara County could have a new transportation sales tax plan in 2011, after the current Measure D plan runs out next year, said Goleta Director of Community Services Steve Wagner to the Goleta City Council Monday night.
Called Measure A, the new tax would continue the soon-to-expire half-cent tax for another 30 years. It would pull in about $1 billion over that time, distributed evenly to the North and South counties, with $1.4 million taken off the top for Highway 101 widening.
A poll conducted earlier this year for Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, proponents of this plan, yielded rather promising results, Wagner said. In a 603-person telephone poll of likely voters, Measure A got ?significant support.”
Its half-cent tax is what county locals are already paying for Measure D, and the distribution of funds appears to be more equitable than an early successor to Measure D, called Measure A+B, which failed in the 2006 ballot, he said.
A+B tacked on an extra quarter cent to the half-cent tax, and to many, seemed lopsided in its distribution of funds.
The new transportation sales tax still needs to win by a two-thirds plus one vote to pass this November. In the meantime SBCAG will be conducting outreach as they seek local governments to endorse the plan. The measure will not be in its final form until around June, but the Goleta City Council has been supportive so far.