Poll: Streets, public safety top priorities in Petaluma

Findings from a new poll indicate some potentially tight margins as Petaluma officials consider placing a new sales tax on the November ballot, a measure that, if passed, could help restore the city’s ailing streets and possibly other municipal needs.|

Findings from a new poll indicate some potentially tight margins as Petaluma officials consider placing a new sales tax on the November ballot, a measure that, if passed, could help restore the city’s ailing streets and possibly other municipal needs.

Released last week, the findings show half of responders would support a wide-purpose, one-cent general tax for 20 years, and 62 percent would support a three-quarter-cent tax focused exclusively on roads for the same period. The numbers climbed to 58 percent for a general tax and 66 percent for a specific tax after further education around the proposed measure, exceeding the 50 percent threshold for a general tax and barely missing the two-thirds majority needed to pass a specific tax.

Petaluma’s top city official said the results were the first step in a forthcoming public outreach process designed to both gauge public priorities and educate residents about the city’s needs.

“Regarding next steps, we will be conducting education and outreach activities for the remainder of the spring to expand on the efforts of the survey, to confirm community priorities and preferences and to better inform the community about the city’s budgetary needs,” said John Brown, Petaluma city manager, in an email.

Street conditions and traffic congestion were considered the most serious problem facing Petaluma, with 63 percent of responders describing street conditions as “extremely” or “very” serious, the two largest measures of concern.

Roads were not the highest ranking spending priority for a potential tax, however - 86 percent of responders felt strongly that maintaining rapid 911 emergency response times was “extremely” or “very” important, compared to 74 percent for roads and 78 percent for potholes. Yet Dave Metz, president of the firm that conducted the survey, noted that those priorities tend to rank highly in most polls.

“Probably the most striking thing was the extraordinary high degree of concern about road conditions relative to other issues. That was really head and shoulders above everything else. You don’t always see that clear cut of a distinction,” said Metz, who heads Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates.

Second-highest ranking in spending priorities was a strong desire by 83 percent of respondents that the funds be used locally.

Support for a narrow road tax climbed when respondents were asked to consider a half-cent instead of a three-quarter-cent measure, with 62 percent indicating they would be more likely to support a measure at the lower cost.

Describing himself as having an open mind toward findings from the city’s public engagement process, Petaluma Mayor David Glass said he was nonetheless hoping for data that would support a specific tax for roads. While the approach carries a higher threshold for approval than a general tax, other roads-oriented general tax measures, including the county’s 2015 Measure A and Petaluma’s own 2014 Measure Q, have failed at the ballot box.

Glass emphasized evidence that a half-cent specific tax was more attractive to responders, and that a 30-year term could still be a major boost for road repair. Such a tax would generate around $180 million, which would be enough to afford the $128 million projected cost to bring Petaluma’s streets to a condition that would be possible to maintain on an ongoing basis.

“You need more than 66 percent going in on something that takes 66 percent-plus-one and takes an expenditure to put it on the ballot,” Glass said. “I hope the town will buy in on that - half a cent, for 30 years, guaranteed to stay local, guaranteed to go to what people want to buy with their tax money.”

The tax is proposed to range from a half cent to a full cent and last between 10 and 30 years, capable of generating $60 million on the low end and a maximum of $360 million, according to information from a city workshop on the topic in February. It would cost approximately $1.7 million annually to restore around 12 positions to the Petaluma Police Department, and an additional $33 million for needed improvements to facilities including three fire stations, the police station and the downtown museum.

In June or July the city will likely decide whether to place the item on the ballot.

Petaluma is contracting with the Lew Edwards Group for assistance with the sales tax effort, with Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates conducting polling. The group collected 400 responses from likely Petaluma voters, using both landlines and cell phones.

Metz emphasized that responses were measured to be more favorable after successive rounds of additional education around the city’s funding needs, suggesting that the city’s engagement activities in the months to come are likely to have a significant impact.

“What the survey shows is the information they tend to respond more strongly to is information that gave them more background and context,” he said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)

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