Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Backs Sales Tax Increase for Parks

Sacramento County supervisors back sales tax increase to fund regional parks

Published: Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
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Sacramento County officials on Tuesday agreed to support a sales tax increase to fund the regional park system.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to seek state legislation to allow a November 2012 election for a 0.1 percent sales tax increase.

If approved by two-thirds of county voters, the tax would raise $17 million annually to support the county's 32 regional parks, including the popular American River Parkway.

Such a tax would add 1 cent to a $10 purchase.

The move came after a four-hour hearing, at which park advocates warned that the state legislative session offers only a small window this summer to move the proposed bill.

There was also general agreement about the desire for a fix before another disastrous county budget cycle next year.

"The sense of urgency, I think, is palpable," said Supervisor Phil Serna.

Support for the sales tax hike marks a partial victory for a group of park advocates that proposed the tax.
The coalition, calling itself the Grassroots Working Group, also wants the county to support forming a new regional park district, with an independently elected board, to take over and manage the parks.

Supervisors, however, were not willing to go that far yet. The board wants more time to study other governance options, as well as the specific structure of a new independent district, if that is the final path.

"I think having an independent regional park district is very important to the success of a tax proposal," James Morgan, a county resident, cautioned the board. "People are going to be very skeptical about giving the county more money for parks."

Indeed, that was the finding of the working group, which already has spent more than a year studying options for the parks. Based on polling results it commissioned, it found 73 percent of county voters would support a 0.1 percent sales tax increase if they knew the money was for an independent park district.

"The county park system doesn't belong to the county. It belongs to the people," said Janet Baker, a former director of the county Regional Parks Department who resigned last month to protest the budget cuts.

"We're really on the edge of a cliff with our wonderful park system," Baker said.

Successive years of budget cuts have gutted park staffing by a third, resulting in poor maintenance and rising concerns about public safety.

The county also owns 6,000 acres of parkland that have never been opened to the public or that provide limited access.

State legislation is necessary because current law allows counties to seek a sales tax increase only as small as 0.25 percent.

In a report Tuesday, county's staff instead urged the Board of Supervisors to support AB 686, a bill awaiting the governor's signature that would allow tax measures as small as 0.125 percent.

But the board and park advocates worried about asking for too much money and jeopardizing a shot at the two-thirds vote necessary for a ballot measure to be approved.

Instead, it directed staff members instead to develop legislative language for a 0.1 percent sales tax increase in time for its Aug. 9 meeting.

The board was not willing to decide on a new governance structure for the parks, and plans to debate that further. Park advocates and county staff members agreed there is time to resolve that issue before a November 2012 ballot.

The only note of opposition came from developer Doug Ose, who recently entered into a contract with the county to operate Gibson Ranch Regional Park as a concessionaire.

"This is not a failure of revenue," he said of county parks challenges. "This is a failure of management."
Ose said his venture has been successful so far.

But critics object to the privatization concept, and want parks to stay in public hands.

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