North shore rejects sales tax hike; property tax boost passes in south

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

Residents on California's north shore of the lake defeated a ballot measure to raise the local sales tax to help pay for new mass transit services.

But residents of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., approved a small property tax increase to pay for recreation improvements.

The transit proposal would have increased the local sales tax by one-half cent in the Lake Tahoe portion of California's Placer County.

Unofficial results show it failed by a margin of about 59 percent to 41 percent.

Had it been approved, the measure would have raised more than $1 million annually to boost bus and van service in north Lake Tahoe, a step supporters argued was critical to efforts to reduce traffic congestion and resulting air and water pollution at the lake.

"Ouch. That's awful," League to Save Lake Tahoe executive director Rochelle Nason said upon learning of the results. "Were very disappointed. It's very important for the north shore to develop workable transit systems."

Opponents said the measure would have imposed an unnecessary tax burden and attempted to address Tahoe's traffic problems in the wrong way.

"I thought it was a bad idea from its inception," said opponent Dennis Schlumpf, a Placer County building contractor.

Instead of transit, Schlumpf favors parking and road improvements, including a Highway 89 bypass around the traffic bottleneck created by "Fanny Bridge" near the Lake Tahoe Dam. Existing buses are barely used and pouring more money into transit makes little sense, he said.

"They were asking all the local citizens to get behind something that would double the buses but a lot of us felt it would just be twice as many empty buses," Schlumpf said.

Steve Teshara, chairman of the Truckee North Tahoe Transportation Management Association, disagreed. He said some 85,000 people used buses across the region this summer but acknowledged supporters have to work harder to increase support for transit.

"We view this as a missed opportunity but obviously we were not compelling to enough folks," Teshara said. "These problems are not going to go away."

In South Lake Tahoe, voters agreed to annual parcel fee of $18 for every single-family home to pay for improvements and maintenance at local parks. That measure needed two-thirds support and came away with nearly 69 percent.

"We squeaked by," said John Upton, a former county supervisor and campaign manager for the ballot measure. "I'm pleased the voters had the wisdom to seize the opportunity. It's an important step to the long-term improvement of this community."