Panel Moves Toward Ballot Vote on Sales Tax : Transportation: A consultant will be hired to draft an initiative. Street repair needs and mushrooming Metrolink costs are cited.

Despite strong opposition from some public officials, the county’s transportation panel took the first step Friday toward putting a half-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot to raise money for road projects.

After three hours of discussion, the Ventura County Transportation Commission voted 4 to 3 to pay a consultant $20,000 to study the county’s transportation needs and draft a sales tax initiative.

The tax, estimated to raise more than $500 million over 20 years, was recommended by commission staff members as a way to avoid slashing street and road repair budgets while trying to cover the mushrooming costs of Metrolink.

“What we’re saying to the citizens of this county is that they will not have money for streets,” Commissioner Michael Wooten of Camarillo said. “But unless we put this on the ballot, we’re not giving the citizens an opportunity to decide their own fate.”

Joining Wooten in favor of the plan were Commissioners David Smith, Nancy Grasmehr and Susan Lacey, who is also a county supervisor.

The three commissioners opposed to the measure were Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo, Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis and county Supervisor Vicky Howard.

Schillo acknowledged the need for more transportation money, but argued that there was not enough time to run a campaign that would persuade a majority of voters to back the tax measure.

“We’re being totally irresponsible on this measure,” Schillo said. “It’s not only our streets. We need to have some time to educate the public.”

Ventura City Manager John Baker agreed with Schillo, making an impassioned speech before the commission. “If you try to go for a sales tax this November, you are going to get killed,” Baker warned the commissioners.

Baker urged the commission to look for extra dollars in various county transportation funds and city budgets before pursuing a sales tax measure.

Four years ago, voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar sales tax measure placed on the ballot.

Ventura County is the largest county in California that does not have a local sales tax to help pay for street repair and other transportation projects.

As a result, the county and most cities rely heavily on money placed in a fund established by the state’s Transportation Development Act.

Each year the county receives $14 million from that state fund. About $6 million of the money is spent on public transit and administrative costs and $8 million on roads.

But Ginger Gherardi, the commission’s top staffer, told the panel that state law gives public transit services such as Metrolink top priority for those funds, and that the commission may have to take most of the $8 million away from the cities to pay for Metrolink.

State law encourage mass transit as a way to decrease air pollution and reduce freeway congestion. Gherardi warned commissioners that the state may not allow the county to discontinue Metrolink service to save money, unless the county is willing to surrender its annual $14-million share of the Transportation Development Act fund.

Gherardi said the county has the financial ability to make it through the upcoming fiscal year that begins in July. “We can scrape by for another year,” she said. “But after that, we’re really going to have problems.”

During the daylong meeting, the commission also agreed to borrow money from reserves to cover the county’s Metrolink bill for the coming fiscal year.

When the commuter trains first rolled into Moorpark and Simi Valley in 1992, the commission agreed to pay $800,000 a year for service. But the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which runs Metrolink, had not come up with an accurate annual cost of running the commuter trains.

The rail authority recently came up with the price--double the $800,000 the commission originally paid. So the county owes $1.6 million for Metrolink services during the first two years.

Commissioners agreed Friday to pay the bill by borrowing the money from a reserve fund for roadside emergency telephones.

Also, the commission has to come up with $1.6 million for the next year of service, plus an added $400,000 to continue temporary service to Oxnard and Camarillo.

Camarillo and Oxnard were added to the Ventura County line after the Jan. 17 earthquake to attract more riders and help relieve congestion on damaged freeways. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying most of the cost of service until Oct. 1 or until the Simi Valley Freeway is repaired, whichever comes first.

When the commission approved the emergency service, it was perceived as a temporary service.

But Gherardi told the commission that since the Metrolink line that serves Camarillo and Oxnard is meeting the state minimum in fare revenue, the county may have to continue paying for service to those stations when FEMA funding runs out, or risk losing its share of the Transportation Development Act money.

Lacey said she was dismayed that the county might be forced to subsidize Metrolink service to Camarillo and Oxnard.

“When FEMA offered to pay for the emergency stations, I thought it was a win-win opportunity,” Lacey said. “In hindsight, it may not have been.”