Doubly Taxing Choice Ahead? : Bills for Jails and Trolleys May Be Paired on Ballot

Jails or trolleys? That is the question.

The answer, it appears, will come from San Diego County voters, with a little help from the politicians they have elected to serve them.

At issue are two ballot measures, both aimed at increasing the sales tax at least half a cent on the dollar.

One, sponsored by the county, would pay for new and expanded jails and courthouses to relieve chronic overcrowding.

The other, backed by the San Diego Assn. of Governments, would fund an expansion of the trolley and pay for work on local roads and state highways in the area.

The political problem is that both sales tax measures could be headed for the November ballot.

The dilemma has been the subject of a good deal of political wrangling this week among San Diego County’s delegation in the state Legislature. Once the politicians decide on which ballot to place the issues, the voters will get the chance to decide whether one or both causes is worthy (or unworthy) of their tax dollars.

Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), who last week helped kill the county’s plan to put the jails issue on the June ballot, said Wednesday he now believes that both should go before the voters in November.

“I think the most straightforward, honest thing to do for the voters would be to put them both on in November,” Peace said. “If you look at it in terms of just pure good government, they ought to both be on the ballot at the same time and let the people make that decision.”

But several of Peace’s legislative colleagues, as well as county officials and backers of the transportation tax, fear that placing the two issues before the voters at the same time might doom them both to defeat.

County supervisors and their lobbyists, in fact, have yet to endorse legislation that is moving rapidly through the Legislature on their behalf. That measure, by Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos), would grant the county permission to put the issue on the November ballot, although no one in county government has said they favor that date.

The bill, an amended version of the earlier ill-fated proposal allowing the county to go to the voters in June, was approved by the Assembly on Tuesday and by a Senate committee called later specially to discuss the bill.

“It seems to have a life of its own at this point,” John Sweeten, the county’s director of intergovernmental affairs, said of the legislation. “I don’t think we are in control of the issue at the moment.”

Diane Jacob, an aide to County Supervisor George Bailey, said the county is “at the mercy of the Legislature.”

“I think what’s unfortunate is that the county Board of Supervisors simply was asking the Legislature to put the issue on the June ballot,” Jacob said. “The Legislature has chosen not to do that. The control is in their hands now.”

Supervisor Paul Eckert said he opposes placing both measures on one ballot. Because of legislation allowing transit officials to get around requirements of Proposition 13, the transit issue requires approval from only a simple majority of the voters. The tax increase for jails would need a two-thirds majority.

“You’d be talking about jails and courts and streets and roads and trolleys,” said Eckert, who supports both tax increases. “I’d like to be able to debate each issue. But I don’t want to talk about them all at one time. It would be too confusing.”

Acting San Diego Mayor Ed Struiksma, chief proponent of the transportation tax increase, also opposes pairing the issues on a single ballot.

“That wouldn’t do either of us any good,” Struiksma said. “It would make it very very difficult for either one of the measures to be successful.”

But Struiksma said the transit tax backers have no intention of delaying their vote. A Sandag committee preparing the issue for the ballot discussed the problem Friday and voted to continue with plans for November, he said.

Struiksma said he was encouraged by talk of moving the county’s issue to a later ballot, perhaps a special election. According to Peace and Sen. Wadie Deddah (D-Chula Vista), there are now plans to amend the legislation to allow the county to seek its vote in November or later. Deddah said the amendment will be offered when the Legislature reconvenes after Easter.

But Peace argues that if the county’s jails are truly in a “state of emergency,” as the Board of Supervisors has declared, then the county should got to the voters in November.

If the jails measure is put off, Peace said, he will interpret that as an indication that the jail overcrowding is not as bad as the county says. Under such conditions, Peace said, he will “chair the committee” opposing the measure.

“That will be the evidence that this whole thing is a crock,” he said.