TransNet proposal gets Encinitas council's endorsement

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Wednesday, September 22, 2004 11:48 PM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS ---- A regional transportation levy that pumps some $2 million annually into city street projects should be extended, the City Council agreed Wednesday in a unanimous vote.

Proposition A, a countywide measure appearing on the Nov. 2 ballot, would extend the existing, half-cent sales tax levy known as TransNet to 2048. The current TransNet tax, set to expire in 2008, is expected to produce $3.3 billion in its 20-year lifetime.

If approved by two-thirds of county voters, the TransNet tax extension would generate an estimated $14 billion for transportation projects over 40 years. As proposed, 30.9 percent of that money would support local roads, 31.5 percent would pay for freeway projects and 35.5 percent would pay for mass transit.

Councilman Dan Dalager, who in April abstained from endorsing the tax extension, reluctantly joined his colleagues in supporting the measure Wednesday.

He had abstained earlier because he needed more information, Dalager told his colleagues.

He said he doesn't like taxes.

"I still have reservations," Dalager said, "but I believe the alternative, which is nothing, is much worse."

The TransNet extension was proposed by the San Diego Association of Governments, the regional transportation planning agency. Association staffer Craig Scott and Jennifer Smith, assistant to City Manager Kerry Miller, told the council that TransNet has paid to resurface city streets and has contributed to a host of other projects.

Without citing cash figures, Smith said TransNet funds have helped pay for the widening of Leucadia Boulevard and the reconstruction of its freeway interchange.

TransNet has provided funds for safe routes to schools and for modifying and synchronizing traffic signals. Improvements along South Coast Highway 101, Lake Drive and Quail Gardens Drive came in part because of TransNet, Smith said.

Some critics of the measure have said that too much revenue would be spent on public transportation, as opposed to widening freeways and building roads. Councilman Jerome Stocks echoed that concern.

"I want the people who are sitting in gridlock tomorrow morning to understand they're not getting gypped," Stocks said.

Christy Guerin, Encinitas' delegate to the association of governments, said TransNet provides a local funding source to leverage state and federal transportation grants.

The association is composed of representatives from the county's 18 cities, and for each of them to line up in support of the measure is "pretty phenomenal," Guerin said.

Councilman James Bond asked Scott, the association's manager of transportation finance, about any planned fixes to Del Dios Highway, "which is a parking lot in the morning going west," he said.

Del Dios Highway runs between Escondido and Rancho Santa Fe and does not cross Encinitas.

Del Dios Highway is not identified as a TransNet project, Scott said, but could qualify for a share of $735 million that would be set aside to improve roads in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.