TransNet opponent fires legal volley

By: KATHERINE MARKS - Staff Writer | Thursday, September 9, 2004 11:38 PM PDT ∞

An opponent of Proposition A, a measure to extend a countywide transportation tax, filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging parts of a ballot summary that is already under legal attack.

The opponent, Carolyn Chase, a spokesperson for a group called Taxpayers for Better Transportation Planning, filed the latest suit regarding Prop. A, which will ask voters in November to extend a half-cent, countywide sales tax called TransNet for 40 years starting in 2008. If passed, the extension is expected to raise $14 billion for transportation projects.

The suit concerns the Prop. A ballot summary, a collection of statements placed on sample ballots sent to registered voters to help them decide how to vote.

Chase, whose group opposes the TransNet extension, is asking a judge to strike portions of the ballot summary's rebuttal to the argument opposing Prop. A and is suing its five authors.

Each ballot summary has an argument in favor and an argument against a given measure and rebuttals to those arguments. The rebuttal to the argument against Prop. A is also the subject of a lawsuit.

"I was inspired by the taxpayer lawsuit," Chase said Thursday afternoon, referring to a suit filed last week by Lisa Briggs, the executive director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, which supports the tax extension. Briggs contends that the rebuttal to the argument in favor of the tax is misleading. A ruling on that lawsuit is expected next week.

Chase in turn said there are serious flaws to the rebuttal to the argument against the tax and wants a judge to strike language labeling opponents "narrow-minded extremists" and saying they "really don't want to solve San Diego County's number one problem," among other statements.

Her suit names the five people who signed the rebuttal: William Lansdowne, the chief of the San Diego Police Department; county Supervisor Greg Cox; Dan Silver, the executive director of the Endangered Habitats League; Andrew Mauro, conservation chairman of the Buena Vista Audubon Society; Cecilia Cazares, the chairwoman of the legislative committee for the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The suit also lists 20 unnamed parties and, in accordance with the law, county Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson.

Chase said she also objects to statements saying opponents of TransNet have a "single-issue political agenda."

"I have a track record of working on dozens of issues," said Chase, who is a member of the Sierra Club and is a San Diego City planning commissioner.

"Sixteen years of their administration (of TransNet) has most of us in gridlock now," she said.

Cazares said she wasn't surprised by the lawsuit, but hadn't seen it by midafternoon. She reiterated the charge that opponents of the tax extension represent extreme views.

If approved, revenues from the tax extension will be split roughly in thirds among freeway, surface street and public transportation projects.

Public transit has been a big sticking point in the debate over the extension, with some critics calling for more spending on public transportation and others calling for less.

"It's clear these are the fringe representatives whose position is contrary to the majority of people," Cazares said, referring to those who are calling for more spending on mass transit.

"I think it's a balanced plan for congestion relief," she said of the TransNet extension plan.

She also said that she supported Briggs' suit.

"Inflammatory talk-show rhetoric has no place on the ballot," Cazares said.

Briggs' suit names Roger Hedgecock, a conservative talk show host and a former San Diego mayor, as well as Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Pam Slater-Price. The three, who oppose Prop. A, endorsed a rebuttal to the argument in favor of the measure that Briggs and others signed.

Contact staff writer Katherine Marks at (760) 740-3529 or kmarks@nctimes.com.

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