Tag Archives: Measure A

Recording Available: Sacramento County Measure A Meeting 9/14/23

In case you missed this special presentation about Measure A at the ECOS Climate Committee meeting on Thursday September 14, 2023 at 6:00pm, you can request a recording of the meeting. Just send an email to office[at]ecosacramento[dot]net for a copy of the recording.

Agenda

6:00 Welcome and Introductions

6:10 Existing Sacramento County Measure A: What It Said, What It Has Done, What It Will Do

Sacramento County voters passed Measure A in 2004, a sales tax to fund transportation improvements through 2039. This presentation is designed to provide us with a basis of understanding and point of reference for a possible November 2024 ballot measure. Also, is there any flexibility to modify how future Measure A revenues may be used?

Co-presented by:

• Kevin Bewsey: Executive Director, Sacramento Transportation Authority
• Liam Huber: ECOS Intern; UC Davis Environmental Management & Policy

Discussants:

• Henry Li, CEO and General Manager of Sacramento Regional Transit
• Michael McKeever, former Executive Director of SACOG

Open Discussion, Q&A

7:05 General updates and announcements

This meeting is open to everyone interested in addressing some of our region’s most pressing challenges.

Click here to view the agenda in PDF.

“If we’re going to invest in roads, how are we going to offset those goals with our goals for (the environment)?”

By Robin Epley | July 21, 2023 | The Sacramento Bee

“They’re not wrong that the road conditions in Sacramento, all over the county, are bad,” Sam Rice told me. “(But) roads degrade, that’s what they do.” Rice is the transportation team lead for the Environmental Council of Sacramento and sits on the board for the Sacramento Metro Advocates for Rail and Transit, where he advises the city of Sacramento and other communities on how the future of transportation can co-exist with smart climate policy. “Road investment in the past has always been something that we simply did out of habit and it’s something that I feel, in the future, we should be thinking of in the context of complete streets,” Rice said. “If we’re going to invest in roads, how are we going to offset those goals with our goals for (the environment)?”

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article277511813.html#storylink=cpy

Sales tax increases to improve Sacramento County keep getting rejected. Here’s why

June 18, 2023 | By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board

It has been nearly 20 years since Sacramento County voters managed to raise the local sales tax to address transportation needs: A measure in 2016 barely missed the required two-thirds voter threshold; a follow-up attempt in 2020 was pulled from the ballot; and then there was the flame-out of Measure A last November. Measure A’s last iteration was a failed experiment to place a sales tax measure on the ballot through an initiative campaign bankrolled by builders and trade unions. The measure proposed the construction of several roads that weren’t even on the regional planning agency’s list. While it deserved to fail, Measure A represents the third unsuccessful attempt in just six years to find a combination of transportation investments that voters could approve.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article276453371.html#storylink=cpy

Sacramento is at a tipping point. What’s the future of housing, sprawl and racial inequality?

June 12, 2023 | By Ryan Lillis

The Sacramento region is at a tipping point. And the next few years will determine what shape we leave it in for the next generation. The region’s housing is less expensive than California’s coastal cities, a selling point that motivated thousands of new residents to move inland since the start of the pandemic. Yet housing prices and rents have skyrocketed the past three years, and fewer than one-third of residents here can now afford to buy the median-priced home. Within the past few months, the Sacramento area became a “minority-majority” region, meaning white residents now make up less than 50% of the population. Still, substantial racial disparities in income, education and access to housing persist, even after the racial reckoning of 2020. Many commercial corridors remain starved for investment, especially those running through lower-income neighborhoods.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/sacramento-tipping-point/article276112636.html#storylink=cpy

Essay: Sacramento voters rejected Measure A’s giveaways and political patronage for a reason

ECOS Board Member Brad Banan wrote the following article published in the Sacramento News and Review on November 18, 2022.

By standard political measures, a proposed Sacramento County transportation tax should have won approval in this month’s election. Supporters had a truckload of campaign cash and the backing of the political establishment, among other things.

They spent more than $4 million on Measure A. Opponents spent less than $7,000.

And yet, just like voters nationwide rejected the narrative of an impending “red wave,” so it appears that local voters bucked conventional wisdom and nixed Measure A. As of Nov. 15, 54 percent of voters were opposed to the measure, leading by a margin of 22,000 votes. The measure would have added a half percent to the county’s sales tax for 40 years, raising it to 9.25 percent in Sacramento.

So why did the transportation tax fail?

Click here to keep reading.