Petaluma council backs sales tax for road repairs

Three months after failing to persuade Petaluma voters to pass a sales tax measure to fund infrastructure projects, the Petaluma City Council voiced support for a countywide quarter-cent sales tax for road repair.

The November campaign over Measure Q, a one-cent sales tax that would have paid for a crosstown connector among other road projects, divided city leaders. On Monday, the seven-member council was almost united in backing a plan to increase the sales tax to fix the crumbling road network in the nine cities and unincorporated Sonoma County.

But council members managed to find areas to disagree. They were evenly split on whether to support the county seeking state legislation to raise the sales tax limit by half a percent above the state limit to 2.5 percent.

Monday’s discussion was intended to provide direction to Councilwoman Kathy Miller, the city’s representative on the Sonoma County Transportation Authority. Almost all members of the council backed a plan to put the sales tax increase on the June ballot. Councilman Mike Healy did not take a position on the tax, and he was opposed to asking lawmakers to raise Sonoma County’s sales tax cap. Mayor David Glass and Councilwoman Teresa Barrett were also opposed to a sales tax cap increase.

“I don’t have a comfort level supporting that,” Healy said. “I don’t think we want to be the only county that can’t get by with a 2 percent cap.”

Petaluma actually has one of the lowest sales tax rates in the county at 8.25 percent. But a quarter-cent increase like the one county leaders are set to seek in June would put Cotati up against the cap. Any other countywide sales tax measures would require special legislation.

Council members agreed to seek a higher share of the potential 5-year sales tax revenue. The plan would divide the money based on the current SCTA formula used with Measure M. Petaluma’s share would be about $1.9 million per year.

Much of the Measure M money has gone to widen Highway 101 to six lanes from Windsor to just north of Petaluma, but the funds have mostly been exhausted, leaving a bottleneck of four lanes through the southern end of the county. Ongoing work to replace the Petaluma River Bridge will not add the much-needed carpool lanes until more funding is identified.

“I do agree Petaluma has gotten the short end of the stick in terms of Measure M funding,” Glass said.

Miller said she would take her fellow council members’ advice back to the SCTA and try and lobby for more of the potential sales tax dollars to go to Petaluma.

“It think it’s worth saying we got left out of the highway widening and we need more money,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Brown at 521-5206 or matt.brown@pressdemo?crat.com. On Twitter @MattBrownPD.