Use of Gas Tax Fund Is Sent to Voters

Ventura County voters will be asked to decide in June whether to use $1.2 million a year from a special gas sales tax fund to help pay for local transportation projects.

The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to put the measure--which could provide enough funds to pay for a Metrolink station in Ventura--on the June 7 ballot.

County officials say the public vote is necessary because California voters in 1974 approved Proposition 5, a constitutional amendment allowing individual counties to dip into state gas tax money for mass transit projects--provided that they win the approval of local voters.

“Our county cannot afford to miss out on its fair share of the state fuel taxes,” Supervisor John K. Flynn told board members.

Access to the state money would not require residents to pay additional taxes, Flynn said.

County officials did not previously seek access to the funds because the county qualified for other state money to pay for its transit projects.

Also, officials have said that in the past, the county’s share of the funds would not have been large enough to warrant the time and expense of placing a measure on the ballot for voter approval.