Understanding Measure A – ½ cent sales tax

Submitted by: Carrie Downey, Esq.
Coronado Councilmember and
SANDAG Board Member

The San Diego County Regional Transportation Commission/San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), has placed a ½ cent sales tax measure on the ballot this November. Measure A, the “San Diego County Road Repair, Transit, Traffic Relief, Safety, and Water Quality Ordinance and Expenditure Plan Providing for the Imposition of a one-half cent retail transactions and use tax for a 40 year period”, will provide up to $308 million per year, $18 Billion over 40 years, in taxpayer funds to build, repair, and maintain highways, roads, bridges, new trolley lines and other infrastructure. The guarantee of future tax revenue allows SANDAG to compete with Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties to secure matching grant funds from the State and Federal Government to build large regional transportation projects. Measure A replaces the revenues previously raised through gas tax funds that have been declining due to the decrease in gasoline prices, increase in vehicle miles per gallon in new cars, and growth of alternative fuel vehicles in California.

Measure A would fund the regional transportation plan, known as San Diego Forward that will position the region to handle the expected 1 million additional people that will live in San Diego County by 2050 without impacting the quality of life. The San Diego Forward plan establishes project timetables to coincide with available funding and construction timelines to prevent commute times and per capita greenhouse gas production from increasing in San Diego in the coming decades. Even with increased numbers of residents, the development of alternative transportation options will decrease commute times for both drivers and transit users and decrease greenhouse gases from today’s current numbers.

The proceeds from the Measure A will be allocated as follows:

24% to Local community infrastructure projects;
41.7% to Transit Capital Projects and Operations;
15.2% to Highway Improvements including HoV lanes, highway connectors and managed lanes;
14.1% to Active Transportation and Open Space programs,
6% to rail/local road grade separation program, and
1% to administrative and oversight costs.

In addition to improving regional transportation routes for those commuting to and from Coronado, the City of Coronado will receive local funds estimated to be $597,000 a year, or $36 million over the 40 year life of Measure A, to be used at Coronado’s discretion for local infrastructure and transportation needs. Measure A gives flexibility to local jurisdictions to allocate their share of the revenues created to meet local infrastructure needs.

A representative list of San Diego Forward projects to be funded by Measure A:

1. Repair and add HoV and connector lanes to major freeways including I-5, I-8 and SR 94/125 corridors;
2. Build new highway rapid bus lanes;
3. Repair bridges for the Coaster commuter light rail line;
4. Build Coaster stations at Delmar Fairgrounds and Camp Pendleton;
5. Increase the frequency of bus, trolley and Coaster routes;
6. Construct a new trolley line, the Purple Line, from San Ysidro to job centers in Kearny Mesa;
7. Provide $71 million a year for the region’s local infrastructure projects and
8. Provide $2 Billion over 40 years to purchase and manage open space and critical habitat for endangered species.

A complete list of the projects and the full wording of the measure can be found at the Registrar of Voters website at: www.sdvote.com/en/measure-a.pdf.

The ½ cent Measure A sales tax would be in addition to the previously voter approved 40 year ½ cent TRANSNET sales tax from 2004 for the years 2017-2044. TRANSET will cease in 2044, but the Measure A sales tax will continue until 2057. At the time TRANSNET was passed in 2004, SANDAG agreed with the stakeholders that helped pass TRANSNET, that the voters should be given the opportunity to vote for a follow-on measure to use the remaining ½ cent sales tax to procure the necessary critical habitat to complete the County’s Habitat Management plans to protect open space, water quality and critical habitat as the County population continued to grow and housing construction continued to increase. Measure A provides that opportunity for the voters.

Should the voters not pass Measure A, SANDAG and member agencies would be required to look for alternate funding sources for highway and local street and road projects, and the San Diego transit agencies, Metropolitan Transit System (“MTS”) and North County Transit District (“NCTD”) would have to look for alternative funding sources to construct and maintain transit operations. The County population will continue to increase, the housing shortage will continue to push development causing the conflict with open space policies, and residents’ commutes will continue to lengthen until an alternative funding source is developed.

Carrie Downey, Esq.
Coronado Councilmember and
SANDAG Board Member