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Celia McAdam, right, executive director of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency, chatted with taxpayers watchdog Dan Sokol after briefing the Auburn City Council on a proposal to increase the sales tax by a half-cent. Sokol is a member of the funding feasibility committee studying methods of raising needed transportation funds.
One of these days (or nights) the Auburn City Council — and the councils of Placer County’s four other incorporated cities — will be asked to back the idea of allowing county voters to pass or reject a proposed half-cent sales tax increase to pay for transportation improvements over a 30-year period.
The pitch to place the proposal on the November 2008 general election
ballot was made to the council this week by Celia McAdam, the executive
director of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency (PCTPA),
which has been studying the matter for the past few years.
If approved by two-thirds of the electorate, the sales tax would swell to 7.75 cents.
By urging that the voters be the ones to decide the issue, the council
would not necessarily be endorsing the tax hike itself — and Auburn
Mayor Bob Snyder, himself a member of the PCTPA Board, emphasized this
during Monday night’s informational presentation by the eloquent McAdam.
In order to get the board of supervisors to place the proposal on the
ballot, the PCTPA must be able to show that jurisdictions representing
a majority of Placer’s population want a countywide vote on it.
But by merely placing the measure on the ballot, wouldn’t the city
council — and other councils — be implying actual support of it?
Councilmen Mike Holmes and Kevin Hanley indicated their belief that it
would.
Anyone driving on Placer’s major thoroughfares is well aware of the
problem. McAdam put it this way: “Traffic congestion is getting worse
and we don’t have enough money to pay to get it fixed.”
She said that the added sales tax would generate about $1.26 billion
over 30 years and that 40 percent of the revenue would be earmarked for
local jurisdictions.
She stressed that the overall plan would use “a combination of additional developer impact fees and the transportation sales tax to leverage future state and federal funds.”
In the case of Auburn, the city would receive about $640,000 a year or nearly $20 million during the three decades. She said planned Auburn projects such as parking structures in Old Town and Downtown, streetscaping and pedestrian enhancements, widening of Dairy Road, Auburn Ravine Road, Nevada Street and Palm Avenue “could happen much sooner” with the added sales tax money.
While much of McAdams’s presentation involved vehicular traffic, Holmes and Vice Mayor Keith Nesbitt urged that the proposal include more money for public transit. Councilwoman Bridget Powers said she’d like more information before making a determination.
In an unrelated transportation matter, the council awarded a “not to exceed” $414,452 contract to Teichert Construction for work on Auburn’s 2006-07 street overlay project. The work will be done on Auburn Ravine Road, much of Dairy Road and portions of Shockley Road. The Teichert bid was the lowest of six received by the city.
Sitting as the governing board of the Auburn Urban Development Authority, the council approved in concept the idea of using redevelopment funds to pay 50 percent of the cost for a new marquee for the State Theater up to a maximum of $125,000.
“The goal of all parties is to have the marquee ready for installation in May of 2008 to coincide with the Auburn Rotary Club’s Project Auburn event,” City Manager/AUDA Executive Director Bob Richardson said in a memo to his bosses.
The Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center recently started raising money for its portion of the cost.
More council news will be reported in the Sentinel’s next edition.
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