Help yourself

Is next year the year that transportation dreams come true for you, San Luis Obispo County?

The eight ball is in front of us, and we haven’t been able to catch it, thanks to a minority of voters who didn’t support a half-cent sales tax measure in 2016 and cities that wanted to put their own tax measures on the 2024 ballot. 

In 2023, the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments found that the county was $2 billion short when it comes to the road, highway, multi-modal, and public transportation projects it wanted to complete by 2045. James Worthley, who was then SLOCOG’s planning director and is now the organization’s deputy director, said that some projects are delayed by decades “because there’s not enough money.”

There’s never enough money, amirite? 

“Local governments must … either generate revenues to expand our system and maintain our investments or watch the system degrade and endanger the health, economy, welfare, and safety of all San Luis Obispo County residents,” the committee that put together the transportation plan said in 2023. “A new funding stream for transportation is needed that is not controlled by the state or federal government and is not tied to the antiquated gas tax.”

In 2016, Worthley argued that the county’s often outcompeted for grants by other counties that have self-help tax measures in place—and he’s still making that argument today. 

But, 10 years ago, the Central Coast Taxpayer’s Association, led by Jordan Cunningham (who won his Assembly campaign that year) and then Andrea Seastrand (who was and still is a former Assembly member and U.S. Rep.) had something to say about a half-cent sales tax. The association blamed a lack of transportation funding on the state Legislature and a “failed bureaucracy.” 

“The solution is not more taxes,” Seastrand said in 2016. “It’s putting rigorous state safeguards in place to ensure the money collected for transportation goes to fix our roads.”

Turns out, we lost out on at least $225 million in revenue that could have been used to better SLO County’s transportation infrastructure and leverage state transportation funds into paying for gigantic projects—such as fixing the snarl of cars that fills Highway 101 at the Route 46 exit. And I don’t see any “safeguards” in place other than a requirement that if we want state transportation dollars, we need to prove we’re willing to pitch in and prioritize those kinds of projects. 

Measure J needed two-thirds of voters to support it in 2016 and received just shy of that number. And in the last 10 years, the counties that surround us have capitalized on state dollars while we’ve been twiddling our thumbs.

Turns out, in order to get help, we need to help ourselves. 

At least, that’s the familiar refrain that Worthley is singing as SLOCOG mulls over the potential of placing a half-cent sales tax measure on the 2026 ballot. 

Santa Cruz County brings in $25 million a year with its transportation tax. Monterey brings in $35 million. Santa Barbara, nearly $50 million. It could be $35 million here, but no dice! 

If the proposed tax measure makes it through all the hoops and approvals, gets placed on the ballot, and passes, that 101/46 interchange is a high priority, Worthley said.

If not: The “status quo” would get worse, he said. 

The status quo in the San Luis Coastal Unified School District is definitely getting worse. In mid-December, the district’s school board had to make a decision that hurt and cut $5 million from next year’s school budget.

That includes cuts to the music budget that so many were so upset about. And earlier this year, so many were upset about other cuts the district was trying to decide upon—including reducing the number of school counselors and cutting the transitional kindergarten program. 

In addition to being upset about the $100,000 getting sliced out of the music budget, residents voiced concerns about dicing up hours for school librarians and impacts to English-learner programs. All of the cuts suck. And all of the programs are important, but the district’s in a budget bind and it doesn’t have that many options. 

While I do feel for the district, I don’t feel sorry for district board member Marilyn Rodger. She took issue with the outpouring of letters from students who will be impacted by the music budget cuts. 

Students complained about broken instruments being held together with hair ties.

“It’s hard for me to conceive that a large group of students came to the same decision about verbiage,” she said at the Dec. 16 meeting. “I think there was an effort to try to frighten kids into thinking we weren’t going to have band.” 

Attendees responded with the requisite boos and by calling her a liar. Nice! 

“You feel that I’m disrespectful, pardon me? I’ve sat her for four hours and listened,” Rodger said. 

Pardon me! 

You were elected to sit there and listen for four hours, ma’am. Nobody forced you to run for office. It’s your job to hear the people. 

And that’s quite an accusation to make against students. Is it so hard to believe that hair ties are being used to keep instruments together when repairs cost so much money and the program is on a shoestring budget? 

How rude. ∆

The Shredder is paid to be rude! Send zingers to shredder@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in Dec 25, 2025 – Jan 1, 2026.