Poll OKd on Levy for Ventura County Roads

The Ventura County Transportation Commission agreed Friday to conduct a public opinion poll to gauge whether voters would be willing to pay more in local sales taxes to raise up to $50 million annually for overdue highway improvement projects.

The commission voted unanimously to spend about $35,000 to hire a Sacramento-based polling firm to help design a survey that would measure just how much people would be willing to spend to ease traffic congestion. Projects affected by the tax hike would include the widening of the Moorpark and Ronald Reagan freeways in eastern Ventura County.

“I know as a Ventura County taxpayer, I’m tired of sitting in traffic not going anywhere because Sacramento doesn’t have the money to spend to expand and modernize our roadways,” said commission Chairman Keith Millhouse, a Moorpark councilman.

More than 700 households, selected to mirror the demographics of registered voters, will be chosen for telephone surveys early next month, said Jeff Raimundo, a partner of Townsend, Raimundo, Besler and Usher, which has helped other California counties pass similar transportation tax measures.

Ventura County is the most populous county in the state that doesn’t have a special transportation levy included in its sales tax, Raimundo said.

If two-thirds of local voters agree to raise the county sales tax a half cent from its current 7.25%, officials expect to collect about $50 million a year for road-improvement and transit projects.