Lessons learned from Measure A campaign

What to make of last week’s shellacking of Measure A, the quarter-cent sales tax increase that county leaders pushed as a way to fund road repair?

First, it shows that the county needs to fire its polling firm. Right up until last Tuesday’s vote, county officials said that polling showed Measure A had a good chance of passing. After the historically small amount of ballots were counted on election night, it was clear that not only would Measure A fail, but it would not even be close.

By nearly a 2-1 margin - 62.7 percent to 37.3 percent - voters rejected the measure that stood to raise $20 million annually over five years, which in all likelihood, would have gone to repair the crumbling county road network and city streets.

This brings up the second lesson from the campaign. Voters clearly did not like how the ballot measure was proposed. Put forth as a general tax, which required a simple majority to pass compared with a specific tax needing two thirds approval, Measure A funds could have technically been spent on anything.

Despite repeated promises by elected officials that the money would be spent on roads, voters saw a potential pool of un-earmarked tax revenue as a blank check for government spending. Even voters who acknowledged the roads are horrendous and need fixing said they were voting “no” because they wanted a guarantee the money would fix roads.

Well, according to Supervisor David Rabbitt, who spearheaded the Measure A campaign, there isn’t going to be a specific tax proposal, or any tax proposal for roads anytime soon. This was our chance to do something to fix the road network and we blew it. Leaders blew it by not building trust and convincing voters to back the measure. Those who support road repair funding blew it by not showing up to vote.

The third lesson backers of the measure should learn is that they need to do a better job turning out the vote. Despite a well-funded campaign, financed mostly by labor unions and construction companies, turnout hovered around 30 percent of registered voters for the off-year special election that cost taxpayers $400,000.

The rest of Sonoma County residents that are not among the 27,853 “yes” voters who took action in support of road repair, should not complain about the shape of the road network, though they invariably will. The county will continue to invest $10 million annually into fixing the roads, mile-by-mile, but it won’t have the revenue to tackle the whole problem like it would had Measure A passed.

The new revenue that the county is seeing from the upswing in the economy is already mostly spoken for as health, education, housing and other programs take their slice. The county’s share of gas tax revenue, the primary road funder, is not going to magically increase either.

The lesson for all of us is, if we want smooth streets, we all are going to have to chip in and help. Until then, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.