Road tax proposal cruising forward

UPDATE: The Transportation Agency for Monterey County has a plan to fix the roads. This month, they’ll actually begin going to all 12 city councils in the county to gain support for the plan.

“I think it’s no surprise to everyone that transportation funding is really in crisis mode.”

The Transportation Agency for Monterey County is moving full speed ahead with a plan created to repair failing infrastructure around the area.

“The state has not made any decisions, they’ve been trying to find an answer all year. And so we’re trying to help ourselves here, “said Theresa Wright, TAMC Community Outreach Coordinator.

TAMC is working on a ballot measure that would mean a county-wide three-eighths of a cent sales tax over the next 30 years.

“That would raise 20 million a year, so we’re talking about 600 million dollars potentially,” said Wright.

All of which would be split equally between local and regional projects.

“We’re talking about 12 cities in the county so each city plus the county of Monterey would have a say of how they would spend that money,” said Wright.

At the end of 30 years, an estimated 600 million dollars would be raised, something the agency says is desperately needed now more than ever.

“Gas prices have gone down and the tax has not been raised in over twenty years,” said Wright.

That tax is the primary funding to fix roads. However more and more people are driving high fuel efficiency cars or electric cars like this one. So those people are paying little to nothing to improve the roads they drive on.

And with El Nino storms playing a big role in weather forecasts, roadways will need all the help they can get.

“There is no funding to help fix that, so this will be a resource to help those kind of concerns,” said Wright.

The potential ballot measure will need to pass by two-thirds.

“The challenge is the diversity of the county, we have diverse interest so that’s our challenge is to put together a plan that we hope voters will approve,” said Wright.

If it makes it to the 2016 ballot, the measure faces another hurdle. Two-thirds must approve the less-than-a-penny tax hike for it to pass.