Renew Measure M for local roads

Although the November, 2018 election may seem far away, Sonoma County officials have begun talks on crafting perhaps the most promising transportation tax measure in more than a decade to fix our dilapidated roadways. Measure M, the quarter-cent sales tax that county voters approved in 2004, is nearing the end of its lifespan, and discussions are now centered on what the next generation of local transportation funding will look like.

Measure M is set to expire in 2024, but it would be prudent to seek an extension of the tax at the ballot box starting in 2018 for several reasons. Transportation officials have essentially borrowed against future revenue from Measure M through 2024, so there is little capacity left. Extending the measure in 2018 would allow officials to issue more bonds and generate the revenue needed to complete key projects like completing the widening of Highway 101 and repairing county and city roadways.

The quarter-cent sales tax has been the county’s most important tool for completing road projects. In passing Measure M, Sonoma County became a so-called self-help county, meaning that our projects are much more attractive for state and federal funding since we have skin in the game. In the last decade, Measure M has attracted $7 for every dollar of local money raised.

Voters in 2004 were promised that the funding would widen Highway 101 from the Marin County line to Windsor. Forty percent of Measure M was dedicated for the highway project, with another 40 percent for local road rehabilitation and new road construction, and the rest for public transit and bike paths.

Petaluma voters could be rightly upset that the current Measure M has not provided quite enough money to complete the highway widening project, leaving a three-mile gap right through the heart of Petaluma. For whatever reason, officials decided to advance the project north from Santa Rosa to Windsor and then to south of Cotati. While there is very visible construction progress on the stretch from the Petaluma River Bridge to the county line, the segment from Corona Road to the Petaluma River remains about $85 million short.

An extension of Measure M would close this gap. The formula for the next generation measure can be adjusted significantly, with the highway getting a much smaller portion. This will free up additional revenue to rehabilitate local roads, which are some of the worst in the entire Bay Area.

County officials and Petaluma officials have tried for several years to come up with a funding solution to fix local roads, to no avail. Petaluma voters in 2014 rejected Measure Q, which was billed as a sales tax for the city’s streets, while county voters in 2015 also turned down a non-specific sales tax measure that was promised for road repair. Earlier this year, city officials threw up their hands on a proposed local sales tax measure to fix streets when polling showed support for the measure falling just short of the required 67 percent threshold to win passage.

An extension of Measure M, with a dedicated spending plan to repair both city and county roadways, would help solve this longstanding problem with no increase in the existing tax rate. While 2018 is still two years away, officials are right in starting the process now. A measure this important will require concerted planning and a dedicated campaign to ensure that it passes.

It will also require cooperation between county government officials and those representing the county’s nine cities. This means that Petaluma City Council members must work together with County Supervisor David Rabbitt to find agreement on a funding formula that equitably divides the tax proceeds between cities and the county. That should not be too difficult, since Measure M did exactly that.

What elected officials must avoid is creating a hodgepodge of city and county transportation tax measures on the ballot which would have the effect of confusing voters, thereby increasing the risk that none of the measures would pass.

Over the last 15 years, we’ve frequently noted that the biggest public concern about local government services is the very poor condition of our roads. City and county officials now have a golden opportunity, by seeking an extension of Measure M, to finally get the job done.