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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

October 1, 2004

Transportation tax measure stirring debate

Subheading

"Measure A is a waste of $1.4 billion taxpayer dollars that will not solve our traffic problems," Fairfield Mayor Karin MacMillan said on the group's Web site. "It will pave the way for sprawling housing developments that will put more cars on our roads. Vote no on A."

Meanwhile, a pro-Measure A campaign also seeks contributions. Supporters say the freeway widenings, interchange fixes and mass transit improvements in Measure A will bring traffic relief, not unwanted growth.

"Solano County has some of the most stringent land-use policies in Northern California," Suisun City Mayor Jim Spering said. "We are doing a lot about urban sprawl and about growth."

But some opponents are using the proposed tax to further promote their growth-control agendas, Spering said.

Seventy three percent of likely voters support the measure's spending plan, according to a private poll done last summer.

The measure needs a two-thirds vote - 67 percent - to pass. With such a high standard to meet, any vocal opposition can hurt. Also, opponents said those polled hadn't heard their viewpoints.

Opponents include county Supervisors Duane Kromm and Barbara Kondylis, Fairfield City Councilwoman Marilyn Farley, the Central Solano Citizen Taxpayers Group, the Greenbelt Alliance and the local Sierra Club.

MacMillan's opposition comes even though the measure's most promoted project is fixing the interstates 80 and 680 interchange. The interchange, which forms the county's worst traffic bottleneck, is within Fairfield city limits.

"Of course, I want the interchange fixed," MacMillan said. "It causes huge problems for the residents of Fairfield and Cordelia in particular."

But Measure A treats the symptoms of the region's traffic problems, not the cause, she said.

Measure A opponents want more mass transit and some growth control incentives in a transportation sales tax measure. They say this can break a circle of sprawl growth and congestion.

Spering has another view. This generation might continue sitting in traffic because Measure A opponents have a growth control agenda for Vacaville, Dixon and Rio Vista, he said.

"They think they have a right to tell those communities how to develop," Spering said.

Other Solano County cities already face growth control constraints imposed by voters or geography. Most development is barred from rural areas, unless annexed by a city.

Thirty of 39 elected officials from the county and its cities supported the Measure A spending plan. The Fairfield City Council endorsed it by a 3-2 vote.

The "No on Measure A" campaign wants to send out mailers, put up lawn signs and talk to voters by phone and in neighborhoods. It has created a Web site at www.NoOnMeasureA.net.

The pro-Measure A campaign has its Web site at www.solanotraffic.org.

Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646 Ext. 232 or at beberling@dailyrepublic.net.

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