San Luis Obispo County residents could get another shot at passing a half-cent sales tax measure to build better roads after 2016’s Measure J failed.
SLO Council of Governments’ (SLOCOG) Deputy Director James Worthley compared how SLO County fared over the past decade to its neighbors.
“Santa Barbara’s had their tax for over 25 years. Santa Cruz brings in $25 million a year. Monterey, $35 million a year. Santa Barbara, nearly $50 million a year,” he said. “Ours would be $35 million a year, but we don’t have one [a transportation sales tax].”
Around 89 percent of Californians, spread out over 25 counties, pay into voter-approved transportation taxes. Those counties have used their tax funds to leverage grants of even higher value from the state, ultimately more than doubling the pot of money available for local road improvements.
Without additional funds from a similar sales tax, SLO County’s power to nab state grants is neutralized, according to Worthley.
“It’s the game the state makes us play where you have to have matching dollars,” he said. “You can’t go to the store that has a BOGO sign and just walk in and say, ‘I just want the free pair of shoes, I don’t want to buy one.’ … So, that’s what the state’s doing in order to advance their priorities.”
Measure J, a special tax that needed the two-thirds supermajority of 66.7 percent of the votes to win, was 440 votes shy of passing. Worthley told the SLOCOG board at its Dec. 10 meeting that SLO County lost out on $270 million in taxes over the past nine years, which could have been used to leverage $430 million in state grants.
“I recently looked up the sales taxes in the county seats,” he told the board. “Every county seat on the Central Coast has a sales tax higher than our highest sales tax [8.8 percent in SLO] in the region.”
SLOCOG proposed a new transportation tax to its board—one that could generate roughly $35 million a year. More than half of the revenue would be dedicated to local road repairs, safety, and improvements. The rest would be split among regional corridor improvements and transportation services for seniors, veterans, and people with mobility issues. Only 1 percent of the revenue would be committed for administration, according to the expenditure plan.
A statistically valid phone poll of 1,000 county residents found that roughly 75 percent of participants believed the region and their respective subregions (North County, North Coast, Central County, South County, and unincorporated areas) needed additional funding for route improvements, SLOCOG staff said.
Sixty-one percent of participants said they’d vote “yes” on the ballot measure after the first reading, while 35 percent said they’d vote against it.
Residents’ top priorities included maintaining 911 emergency vehicle access, keeping roads and highways in good condition, and reinforcing aging bridges and overpasses. Participants also said a review every 10 years was important along with keeping bus fares low for targeted groups and improving pedestrian safety.
Kendall Flint, the project manager with transportation planning and engineering firm DKS Associates that works with SLOCOG, told New Times that local flexibility makes the new tax proposal different from Measure J.
“It does not mandate particular percentages for bike, pedestrian, and transit. It allows each of the agencies to be more flexible and be more responsive,” she said. “I think arguably, the election cycles between 2016 and now have been, shall we say, challenging. This is an off-presidential year, which is interesting because most of the time, you would think that these would go on a presidential year [ballot] and may still again in 2028.”
Flint added that the public is also looking for guarantees that the money is going to be spent appropriately, which the tax proposal outlines in its expenditure plan.
It’s something that Republican Party of SLO County Chair Randall Jordan said he appreciated.
“Government is very, very famous for doing that,” he said. “They get it approved and they throw it into their general fund, and it gets used for something else. … So that’s huge.”
Jordan added that he’s also made note of a supplementation clause in the tax proposal that claims the sales tax funds can’t be exchanged if municipalities already have money set aside for road improvement projects.
The local Republican Party opposed Measure J in 2016.
“Republicans, which I’m one of, do not like taxes,” Jordan said. “We’re taxed enough already. We feel that the county, [like] our personal households, you need to stay within your budget. Government has a hard time doing that.”
Jordan’s chapter of the Republican Party hasn’t made up its mind on the new tax proposal. Its central committee has yet to read the final draft. Jordan admits that county roads need help, some more than others.
“I work in Paso Robles and the local roads in Paso Robles are actually in worse shape than the county roads,” he said. “Back in 2016, they were talking about using the sales tax funds for the 101 freeway where it comes into Pismo Beach. … We give the county enough money to basically run the county, and it’s the priorities that they set that keep our roads in bad disarray.”
Flint told New Times that SLOCOG isn’t advocating for people to vote one way or another, but they’re stressing that the cost of maintaining roads would increase and road quality would decrease without additional funding.
SLOCOG considered bringing forward a transportation tax measure in 2024, thanks to a 23-year regional transportation plan that identified a $2.3 billion gap in county transportation funding. But the measure wasn’t popular enough to appear on the ballot.
At the Dec. 10 meeting, in a 10-1 vote, with board member and 5th District Supervisor Heather Moreno dissenting, the SLOCOG board advanced the new tax proposal’s draft expenditure plan.
It needs approvals from city councils and the Board of Supervisors by the end of spring to appear on the ballot in November 2026.
SLOCOG’s Worthley told New Times that if the measure passes, one road improvement project that’s high on the priority list is Paso Robles’ state Route 46 East and Highway 101 interchange.
Even if the tax measure succeeds, Worthley said it’s not enough money to accomplish every project that the community wants.
If the tax proposal falls flat again, the “status quo” would get worse thanks to the state’s grant leverage system, he added.
“A high school football team could play against the 49ers. They all know the rules, right?” Worthley said. “We know the rules but even though we’re on the same field, it’s more like the high school team has their shoelaces tied together also.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 25, 2025 – Jan 1, 2026.