How to resolve AdBlock issue? The item was initially brought forward by District 1 Supervisor Helen Owen, who requested the “use of staff time in excess of eight hours” for initial feasibility research on a dedicated special tax for county roads.
During the discussion, all supervisors acknowledged that deteriorating roads and lack of funding are shared concerns across districts, and agreed to engage county staff in conducting the research.
The board and Public Works Director Glen March settled on a three- to six-month timeline for March to return with a presentation.
“Probably my biggest complaint as a supervisor is our county roads,” Owen said. “Funding seems to be an issue to take care of our roads, to be able to keep them usable. And there are roads in every district that need attention.”
A 2023 report by NCE, a civil engineering firm, recommended a 10-year pavement management program of $165 million over 10 years — a minimum scenario — that aims to raise the overall pavement condition in Lake County and reduce the need for deferred maintenance. However, even this plan was “well beyond” the county’s funding capacity, according to the staff memo.
The memo explained that a special tax could directly fund road projects and may also qualify Lake County for the state’s Local Partnership Program, or LPP, which “offers matching funds to jurisdictions with voter-approved dedicated transportation ‘taxes, tolls, or fees’ in place.”
“The state sets aside $72 million annually for competitive grants for projects in cities and counties that have a dedicated road tax or fee,” March said at the board meeting. “And we can also use sales tax revenue to pay for the local match portion of grants.”
He added, “So the intent would be to use that money to leverage it to get more money.”
March mentioned that both cities of Lakeport and Clearlake have enacted a 1% sales tax measure for road improvement. Clearlake is also using their sales tax money to fund bonds to improve the roads.
He also noted that a transient occupancy tax, commonly known as “hotel tax,” does not qualify the county for the LPP; only sales tax does.
“One of the reasons we're looking at a sales tax is because it opens us up to additional funding and grants,” Owen added. “We just want to see if the public would be interested in it, and if we can do something to make our roads safe.”
She added, “I wanted to make this tax specific to our roads so it couldn't get hijacked, basically for other funding, but just to take care of our county unincorporated road.”
Owen also expected the feasibility research to explore “if this is something we can bring forward for the 2026 ballot to be voted on.”
Supervisors urge caution moving forward
While all supervisors expressed interest in exploring the idea of a special tax, they asked staff to proceed with caution and limited scope.
“I am very, very concerned about the economy right now, and if muni [municipal] bonds are going to be taxed — there's a lot to look at on the financial side,” said Supervisor Jessica Pyska.
“I don't think it's quite time to survey the public yet,” she said, adding that it should remain “an internal conversation” with staff, the auditor and tax collector for initial review only.
Pyska continued: “We have had those discussions years ago, and because we've never had a tax measure be successful in this county, be very careful about how we move forward.”
Supervisor Brad Rasmussen reminded the public that this was “by no means” a step toward placing a measure on the ballot, but simply an “investigation.”
“I just want to make sure the public's aware of that at this point — that strictly would be research to see if it's feasible, and if so, how, how much would we be asking for,” he said.
“I think our director can come back to us and see what the timelines and costs and potential revenues would be so that we can make the right decisions for the right reasons,” Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said.
Discussion on the road problems
The board also engaged in a brief discussion on the road problems and longstanding funding shortfalls that have remained unresolved for years.
“As I understand, we’re really low on funds. Some of it has to do with the tribal gas stations not paying 75 cents per gallon tax,” Owen said at the beginning of the item.
Later, during board comment, Supervisor Eddie Crandell pushed back on the statement associating tribes with the road problem.
“I'd just like to emphasize that we've had road problems way before tribal gas stations. So I just don't think it's very responsible to say that because tribes don't get taxed for SB 1 funds that's the problem,” Crandell said, referring to the landmark Senate Bill 1 enacted in 2017 that increases tax dollars invested in transit and safety.
“I didn't mean it like that,” Owen said immediately. “The way it was explained to me was that we're not getting those taxes, that we would be getting more money for if, if they were all contributing to 75 cents a gallon.”
“They go through weights and measures,” Crandell responded.
Pyska added that electrical vehicles are not paying tax for gas either. “The whole system is changing,” she said.
Owen agreed. “There's a number of things that are contributing to us not having enough money to maintain our roads. So I apologize,” she said.
“The reason I had to mention it is because we have people watching who will take that, and I've seen it everywhere,” Crandell added. “When tribal people pay taxes, sales tax, they pay federal tax dollars, they pay state taxes. So I'm not blaming you for saying that per se; I just know how people take it.”
During public comment, community member Thomas Lajcik said, “You have electric vehicles and they’re driving just as much as a regular vehicle, and they put wear and tear on the roads, but they don’t stop at the gas station…We do have to look at it a different way because the gas tax model will not fund our roads, either in this county or this state.”
“We are four out of 58 counties that are still at a 7.25 [%] tax base,” said Sabatier. “Now I'm not saying that means we should increase our tax but we will never resolve our road issues without doing something different than what we've been doing this entire time.”
“The roads are just deteriorating more, I mean, so we need to do something — and what's the definition of insanity?” Owen said.
Crandell quickly picked it up: “Doing the same thing over and over.”
The complete line of the familiar saying is: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.”
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
