Public meeting scheduled Wednesday on Sonoma County climate initiative, potential tax measure

With their goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 less than seven years away, Sonoma County’s Regional Climate Protection Authority is considering a potential tax measure on the November 2024 ballot to fund climate mitigation and adaptation projects.

The public will be able to weigh in on that idea as well as priorities for addressing human-caused climate change through a host of decarbonization, land management and risk reduction programs during a virtual meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Authority representatives know they have to pick up the pace on carbon reduction efforts if the county is to reach its carbon neutrality goal, which will require increased investment in 13 key strategy areas like all-electric building, increased carbon sequestration, a resilient energy grid and zero waste, officials said.

“We do not have the resources to meet our climate goals. Period,” Santa Rosa City Councilman Chris Rogers, an authority board member, said Monday.

Members have not decided what kind of funding mechanism is best for the county or even whether it should be addressed countywide or city by city, Rogers said, though the board has focused primarily on a regionwide approach.

It’s also not certain that any funding measure placed before voters would earn the two-thirds vote needed to win approval. The climate authority’s options are limited to a sales tax, which disproportionately burdens low-income households; a parcel tax, of which there are varying forms; or vehicle license fee, which has drawn substantial pushback from the public in past years, Rogers said.

“We’re trying to find out if we have the support in the community to do it,” said Suzanne Smith, executive director of the climate authority. “The interest is there on the part of my policymakers to have a local, stable source of funding and to leverage state and federal funding opportunities that are growing,” in part through the federal infrastructure bill passed last fall and through carbon reduction efforts writ large.

The authority was established in 2009 to coordinate climate protection efforts among the county and its nine municipalities. The board includes representatives from each of nine cities and towns in Sonoma County as well as three members of the county Board of Supervisors.

What’s being called the Climate Protection Initiative has its origins, in part, in conversations about Measure DD, the 20-year extension of a quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in November 2020 to fund transportation improvements around the county. One of its selling points was the county’s ability to leverage locally generated tax money to secure $5 in state and federal grants for every local dollar spent.

At the time, some voters wanted to see some of the Measure DD funding go toward climate projects. Members of the County Transportation Authority, which has the same board as the climate authority and much of the same staff, including Smith, assured them that climate issues would come next.

A state law authored by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and signed by the governor last fall enables cities, counties, and special districts to establish climate resilience financing districts in order to fund projects addressing climate change, wildfires, sea level rise, extreme heat and cold, drought, flooding and the like.

Members of Sonoma County’s Climate Authority supported the bill, which identifies the authority as an authorized climate resilience district — the first in the state.

“Sonoma County residents in all sectors have already been experiencing the negative impacts of climate change,” west county Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, vice chair of the climate authority, said at the time. “We need to act decisively. The additional funding options provided by Sen. Dodd’s bill will allow RCPA to move forward with a practical, effective strategy to combat climate change in all areas of the county.”

During a community kickoff meeting on the Climate Protection Initiative last December, Smith noted voters’ historic willingness “to fund things that matter to them” by supporting sales tax measures for libraries, open space acquisitions, transportation projects and mental health services.

If a tax measure were to go on the fall ‘24 ballot “it needs to pretty much be wrapped up in a bow by (next) May,” though there would be polling, public forums and other opportunities for public input and appraisal beforehand, she said.

In the meantime, the climate authority has established committees analyzing three project areas to help identify spending priorities, taking steps toward development of an expenditure plan in support of a potential ballot measure.

The three areas are buildings, transportation, and land and water, with committees overseen by experts in those areas exploring the most efficient and highest-impact ways to reduce greenhouse gases and confront the impacts of climate change.

But all voices are welcome in the debate, Rogers said.

“I’d just encourage people to really get involved,” he said.

Wednesday’s meeting will be on Zoom from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

It will include remarks on the need for urgent climate action from North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman, who, as a state lawmaker, authored the enabling legislation for creation of the climate protection authority.

Live Spanish translation will be provided.

To register, go to rcpa.ca.gov/event/climate-protection-initiative-public-meeting/.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.