Voters say no to South Tahoe’s Measure C
By Kathryn Reed
While the majority of voters said yes to Measure C, that was not enough support for the South Lake Tahoe roads measure to pass.
The sales tax initiative required two-thirds of the voters to cast yes ballots.
With all the votes counted on Nov. 7, El Dorado County Elections Department is reporting the measure received 1,194 yes votes (54 percent) and 1,017 no votes (46 percent.)
The low voter turnout (22 percent) was expected with this being the only item on the ballot.
The ballot measure asked the residents of South Lake Tahoe to raise the sales tax from 7.75 percent to 8.25 percent. The $2.5 million that was projected to be raised annually could only have been spent on roads.
There are zero dollars for roads in the 2017-18 South Lake Tahoe budget. The City Council of late has funded roads at the mid-year budget review. However, not a single road was paved in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2011 and 2016.
With a projected deficit coming in the next few years based on revenues leveling out and expenses – retiree costs in particular – increasing, the mid-year cash infusion into roads is likely to go away.
The council will have the option to continue to not make roads a priority in the budget or cut something else to clear the way for pavement projects.
While the City Council on Tuesday appointed members to a roads authority management board, those people need to look for another way to be civically involved. They were to have had oversight of the projects.
Neither City Manager Nancy Kerry nor Mayor Austin Sass returned Lake Tahoe News’ calls, nor did Measure C opposition spokesman Bruce Grego.
Thh City should form assessment Districts throughout the City and put it on the Property Taxes to be paid for over a 30 year period.
Will the council learn a lesson from this present debacle? Yesterday they truly showed they are in the back pocket of the RE folks and shunned the citizen voters living around VHR’s. Hopefully this will be a learning experience that the people are fed up with the council ignoring them and the misery VHR’s create for so many of SLT’s voting citizens.
They maybe will think compromise when both these issues come up again.
BTW, the fireplace is beautiful but useless.
I got a great idea. How about another consultant and study. Should only cost a hundred thousand or so. OK, maybe two hundred thousand, but no big deal as the city is awash in money.
Dear Kae:
I am sorry I missed your call last night. Clearly, Measure C was defeated just as the prior measure submitted by the Council was defeated because the People feel that roads should be a priority for the City and the money should come from existing revenue sources.
When the Council expends monies on different programs or projects, each Council member should ask whether the expenditure they are planning to make is more important than expending the money on road repair and improvement.
Hopefully, the Council will reevaluate its spending priorities.
Bruce Grego
This tax would have been borne by both the residents and visitors as opposed to increasing property taxes. Seemed like a way to increase revenue that could be earmarked for a specific purpose. Too bad.