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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

June 4, 2006

Measure H: Flawed, but necessary

• A sales tax is a regressive tax.

• This tax has a 30-year shelf life. It does not adequately tie transportation infrastructure planning and spending to future housing growth in Solano County.

• It pays for the transportation and growth planning sins of the past, instead of addressing future needs.

• It sends money to the cities for deferred street maintenance that should have been paid through existing funding channels.

The very real, often dangerous transportation mess that is Solano County's roads today, however, outweighs those issues.

Serious reservations notwithstanding, we recommend a "yes" vote on Measure H.

This is the third trip this transportation measure is taking to the ballot. It missed the requisite two-thirds majority in 2004 and previously in 2002.

Supporters hope that a few adjustments in the measure this time will push it over the top. There is an oversight board to monitor its spending. This attempts to address justified voter cynicism that these tax monies will be voted in to finally fix congested and crumbling roads, only to be diverted later to some other pet political need.

A deal has been struck with past opponents of the measure who feared traffic improvements would simply encourage urban sprawl.

This time, the Greenbelt Alliance and community advocates give the tax plan a green light, pleased with amendments to Measure H that address public transit, and with agreements to support the extension of Solano County's Orderly Growth Initiative. Indications are there will be strong political support for extending that growth-containing measure past its sunset in 2010.

Our concern for this measure remains the same as in earlier attempts. It is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem.

We would not be in as serious a transportation infrastructure fix now if, years ago, cities had heeded calls that they were living on developer fees and that the thousands of houses being built looked like a boon, but foretold future transportation problems.

That same suburban, single-family mindset continues today, especially upcounty where home-building patterns are as they have been for decades and prove nothing has been learned from past mistakes.

Solano County must get out of the single-family home box when it comes to land-use planning. Higher-density, multi-use housing projects make much more sense in Solano County, where the land is scarce and costly, and growth, without adequate transportation planning and funding, means a repeat of today's problems.

That aside, Measure H's passage would mean big money to fix serious problems such as Interstate 80/680/Highway 12's near-gridlock and modifications to accident-prone Highway 12, from Rio Vista through Jamieson Canyon Road.

In the same vein, we encourage Napa County readers to approve their own, similar Measure H, whose repairs feed into Solano's Highway 12 (Jamieson Canyon) plans.

Measure H brings in millions for Solano commuter rail service, maintenance and repairs for local streets, help for the I-80 interchanges at Turner Parkway, Sonoma Boulevard, Tennessee Street and Redwood Street, and another ferry.

It addresses the new "self-help county" shenanigans from the state that says local projects that have self-funded at least part of a transportation improvement project get moved to the head of the state's work line.

A "yes" vote on Measure H should get traffic moving while political leaders in Solano County hopefully seek a plan for the county's future growth.

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