Voters will have the opportunity to adopt Measure B, a one-half of one percent local road sales tax in Turlock, with a two-thirds majority in the pending General Election on Nov. 4.
Measure B was put on the ballot by the current City Council in early June in a 4-1 vote with Councilmember Amy Bublak as the dissenting vote. According to City Manager Roy Wasden, the cost to put it on the ballot was estimated at $30,000.
The purpose of the proposed road tax is construction, reconstruction, replacement, repair and/or maintenance of existing Turlock streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, ramps, pedestrian/bicycle improvements, including Americans with Disabilities Act improvements, and necessary pavement markings.
Should 66.7 percent of voters approve the new tax, the City Finance Department estimates that the measure would raise an additional $39 million dollars over the seven year life of the tax.
Supporters of the tax explain it as an additional 50 cents on every $100 of taxable goods; additionally they note that city residents would not be the only ones to absorb the fees as out of town shoppers would contribute. It is estimated that annually, $5.6 million would be raised from the new tax revenue.
Despite the fact that the gas tax already in place is designated for roads, which on the federal level, does have the potential to go up, the City currently is only putting $50,000 toward roads in the General Fund, but previously it has not provided funding for roads in several years.
If passed, the tax would begin collection April 1, 2015 and would automatically terminate seven years after, or upon the adoption of a new countywide transportation sales tax measure.
Many Turlock residents would argue the need for road repairs and attest to the fact that road are in need of repair, conversely, the tax, with many nuances and uncertainties, and recent occurrences is seen by some as less than best practice.
Hypothetically, should Stanislaus County propose and pass a transportation sales tax in 2016, there is no guarantee to Turlock voters that the rest of the roads included in the list scheduled to be fixed past 2016 would, in fact, be repaired. To be clear, toward the end of the list, many roads are not even guaranteed funding, and would be done as funds become available.
Candidates running for City Council have a variety of views. At a recent candidate forum, Sergio Alvarado stated his blatant opposition to the tax, Matthew Jacob and Forrest White, who sits on the Citizens for Yes on Measure B committee, stated their support, and Bill DeHart and Donald Babadalir both expressed that voters should be left to make the decision.
Mike Brem, candidate for Mayor, has expressed his strong support for the Measure and has garnered much public support because of it.
Both the Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee (PAC) — Turlock Action for Business (TAB) — and The Modesto Bee editorial board have endorsed Brem because of his strong support of the road tax.
Brem addressed the concern of many stating that a guarantee from the County that stating Turlock roads would be fixed was not possible because a Countywide tax is not currently on the table.
Opponent, Gary Soiseth, stated that he is not the anti-B candidate, but rather needs a guarantee that city taxpayers will receive what they are promised should they approve it; upon that guarantee, he expressed that he is “more than willing to support the initiative.”
Should the incoming Mayor and potentially new incoming Council deem it necessary, they have the option to amend or repeal the tax by a two-thirds vote of the Council but would not have the option to increase or extend the rate of the tax without voter approval.
Other groups have created stances both for and against the half-cent road tax.
The Citizens for Yes on Measure B, in which Councilmember White and Mayor Lazar sit on the advising committee, and Councilmember Steven Nascimento sits on the steering committee, has filed in support of the road tax.
The committee has raised $26,020 in total contributions as of Sept. 30. Donors include Teichert Construction who has done several repaving projects in Turlock recently. They were awarded the Monte Vista Avenue repaving project in September 2013, as well as several other repaving projects.
Citizens for Yes on Measure B have also been in recent news for an insert placed in the City's September utility bill. City Manager Roy Wasden approved the inserts, which were prepared by the committee before they were sent out, but were not identified as campaign material by the committee.
The TAB PAC has also come out in support of the tax, despite business groups typically being against new taxes, due to Turlock’s dire need for road repairs.
A second group, which has not formally filed in opposition of the tax, has created a Facebook page. It is unknown who is behind the opposition group.
For those who remain undecided, or those interested in reading what Measure B entails, the full text of the tax is now available online on the City of Turlock’s website.
No matter the stance, Turlock voters will take to the polls on Nov. 4 to decide how Turlock roads will be fix.
here we go again, dj we get you don’t want measure b to pass. Better let your remaining staff members write about something before they quit too.
Good info to know before I fill out my ballot. Me and the wife are sending ours in this weekend.
And that is why they posted this again, to influence the vote of the absentee voters
I feel like Turlock City News is trying to make me vote yes now with the ad in the article. Leave the ads out. Or are you guys flipping like Soiseth and now want the tax? Just give us the news and don’t be like the city forcing us to vote yes on more taxes!!!
Is this story for or against the road taxes? Is this supposed to lose because of the economy and that a county tax might make Turlockians pay double or triple?
Should the incoming Mayor and potentially new incoming Council deem it necessary, they have the option to AMEND or repeal the tax by a two-thirds vote of the Council but would not have the option to increase or extend the rate of the tax without voter approval.
It won’t pass so who cares
Turlock and other cities are not properly allocating in the budget to get these roads fixed. Why should we be taxed AGAIN for something we’ve already been taxed for? This is ridiculous. City employees need to take some pay cuts and funds need to be properly allocated. Not allocating for roads in several years is extremely irresponsible. Besides, they won’t end up fixing the roads that actually need it. They’ll re-do wealthy neighborhood’s roads and the poor areas will still be crumbling, even though the poor are also paying this tax. I’m voting no and I’m sure most people with a shred of common sense will too.
Measure B has not been polarizing, but this article makes several factual misstatements and is very misleading. Please correct your statement that the city has not spent any money on roads in the past several years. I suppose all the road work on Monte Vista was done by Gary Soiseth using his own money, lol. You guys are a joke. Promote your agenda a little harder.
They are willing to tax between 33% and 50% of the homeowners of Turlock twice for the same thing. From what I can see, special assessment districts work in areas that have them, and the areas of town not included in one of these districts are left high and dry by the city council. I have seen where an area of town attempted to create their own district, but it could not pass because those living in that area did not want to pay higher taxes. Now, the city wants to pass that burden on to the rest of us.
Vote No.
I don’t see this as biased and it’s more informational than the utility bill insert Mayor Lazar said was not political campaign material even though it only had why to vote yes on it.
Why and how did the ally’s on Sierra Drive get paved??? They were never paved ever. The city has funds to pave a alley but not roads. Exactly. The wealthier neighborhoods will be taken care of and the others will go unnoticed. What a waste of taxpayer money paving alleys an asking citizens to be taxed to pave roads
The money used on Monte vista and fulkerth and golden state were probably paid for by federal grant money from road tax everyone pays already. The city hasn’t spent general fund dollars on roads for years and actually should say decades.
Someone should look into how the city workers filling potholes now are paid since the city admits to not spending money on our roads. It could be another illegal action causing a lawsuit if they are getting paid from other funds such as our water rates that keep going up.
They used sewer fee funds to replace the sewer lines in the alleys on Sierra Drive then used sewer fee funds to pave the alleys that had never ever been paved in 80 years of existence. Doesn’t the city managers assistant live on Yosemite? Her alley was paved. Plus all the streets around her home have been paved. Must be nice to use public funds to increase property values.
I heard an attorney at dust bowl mention the city manager could be used for misuse of public funds for sending out the road tax insert in the city utility bill. Is this true? And would this be another misuse of public funds raising sewer rates to pay for paving alleys? I can’t believe an alley got paved before an actual street. Only in Turlock!
are you people that dumb? They upgraded the sewers in the alley, you know they have to tear up that asphalt to do that right? So they are just gonna leave the alley completely tore up? A bunch of idiots that read tcn.
You are dumb and read Tcn too. I don’t know about the alley but I would like to know what budget pays for the workers filling pot holes if the city said they don’t spend General fund dollars on roads. Sounds like a red flag or maybe they do have money to spend and have been lying about needing more taxes.
I’m in high school and you all look dumb (*edited by tcn) about politics. I came to see a friend who made the news for her miss teen competition and another friend who made a football game picture. This is really funny though.
They were all dirt alleys dumbo not asphalt. I may be dumb but your an idiot. Know the facts before name calling
Matter of fact, when the older neighborhoods were built it was the either the developer or property owners decision to pave their alleys and if so they paid for the cost not the city. That’s why some alleys are paved and others are not in the older neighborhoods.