The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors earlier this week moved forward with plans to put a one-cent sales tax on the November ballot to fund road repairs around unincorporated parts of the county.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted 4‑1, with Supervisor Madeline Cline dissenting, to advance to the next step in the process of drafting the ballot measure.
According to a proposal written by Howard Dashiell, the director of the Mendocino County Department of Transportation, the measure would allow the department to improve county roads that they don’t have the funding for.
The proposal says that with the sales tax increase and the support of some funds from the state, the department would have an additional $5.5-6 million per year to repair about 337 miles of roads in the county.
With the help of the Mendocino Council of Governments, county staff, and consultant Curtis Below from the Oakland-based consulting firm FM3, a survey was conducted in late 2025 to determine whether voters would support a ballot measure proposing a one-cent sales tax increase.
In this survey, 660 people in the county were asked if they would vote yes on the measure. The findings show that support for the measure reached approximately two-thirds at the time the survey was conducted. A tax measure for a specific purpose like repairing roads would require a two-thirds majority for approval.
Supervisor John Haschak pondered who would be drafting the language of the measure and how the content of the measure would be communicated to the public.
“Getting the word out to people, are there ideas about who might rally around this? Is that part of your survey?” Haschak asked the FM3 consultant.
“What we do is we just take the opinions of voters. We don’t engage different community stakeholders or ask their willingness to participate in a community-based campaign,” Below said, adding that the county would also be responsible for drafting the language of the ballot measure.
Haschak was supportive of the potential measure but also expressed concern due to the financial struggles he has witnessed in Mendocino County. But he also said that the Board of Supervisors has been discussing the issue of county roads for a long time.
“This is an issue that the board has looked at for quite a few years, and MCOG has looked at it quite a few times, and we’ve finally got the research done, and this is kind of the time to do something. I think we should take it to the voters and have them decide what they want to do with it,” Haschak said.
Cline, who represents District 1, which includes Potter Valley, also known as “pothole valley” among some locals, said that the state has been shortchanging rural areas like Mendocino County.
“All of this funding is being collected by the state through the gas tax, and we’re not receiving our fair share, so the county is getting blamed for not keeping up with road maintenance and being derelict in that duty,” Cline said. “We are not talking about the broader conversation of how there’s declining revenue through the gas tax plus the formula is set up to shortchange us as a rural community.”
Supervisor Ted Williams, who has been discussing allocating more funding to county roads in recent board meetings, said that a sales tax measure would be a way of asking voters if they want to collectively “buy better roads.”
“If the answer is no, we live with what we have. But when was the last time we asked the public if they want to buy better roads?” Williams said.
But Cline, who said that her constituents in District 1 have been distrustful of the government’s past efforts on county roads, said she would not ask her constituents to consider this measure at this time.
“I will say that the First District does have the worst roads in the county of Mendocino … but there has not been any track record improving their roads,” Cline said. “I understand the perspective of putting this in front of them and it’s their decision, but there’s no buy-in from them that the county is going to take care of their roads.”
Haschak said the county will likely have draft language of the proposed sales tax measure ready by this summer for the Board of Supervisors to vote on before the November election.
The next Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on March 24 in the board chambers at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. Meetings can also be watched virtually via Zoom. More information, including agendas, is available at this website.
Expectation: If it is voted in there will be freshly paved roads throughout Mendocino County within a couple of months. New asphalt blacktop smoothed over so we enjoy a smooth ride home.
Reality: Major potholes will finally get filled in. There will still be patches on the patches. Highway 101, right lane into Ukiah will still have the trucks and the rough road since it is State, not County. The cost of everything you buy will go up. Again.
How many more taxes can Mendocino voters afford? There are already taxes in place to repair roads. Where is that money?
I will vote no. Yes, some county roads are in bad shape. But I’m already paying way to much in taxes. It makes no sense, that I should pay more for everything I need to buy while the federal government is wasting more than 11 billion a day waging war in the Middle East, South America and Minnesota. The folks in the Middle East, South America, Greenland, LA, Chicago, and the Twin Cities aren’t the problem. Trump and the MAGA cult morons are the problem. Wasting tax dollars on wars, ICE goons, and tax cuts for the rich are the problem. Instead of raising taxes, get rid of Trump and the Nazi idiots ruining the country! That will free up enough money to repave every road in America, rebuild every bridge, heal the sick, and house the homeless, and still have enough left over to cut taxes for every family in the country.
There ya go. Just get rid of Trump and cure global hunger, finally have world peace, every problem solved, planet earth saved just in time, oh yeah, and that pot hole in front of the house finally gets filled in. Utopia is on the ballot. Choose wisely.
https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-iran-war-11-billion-income-housing
Then why didn’t Biden do all of those things? Im so confused… my road to Potter Valley is like a 3rd world country
I agree 100% with this comment!!
The supervisors sure as hell were not think about road maintenance when they unanimously voted themselves a salary increase just two years ago. Mendocino county is dying and this group of “supervisors” do have enough sense to see what’s coming. Taxing yourself into prosperity is like standing in a bucket and trying to lift it by the handle.
I don’t think the county should ask for a one percent tax rate for road like Howard is asking for we pay road taxes on fuel and I see a lot of wasted money from the county all the way from road maintenance to public building department too many people on payroll, cut of them out and make other people or just standing around or sitting around on a desk not doing anything make them do their job
NO NEW TAXES GOD DAMN IT!
I am already paying over $30,000 a year in income tax plus god only knows how much sales tax. Hell no. If another cent is added to sales tax it won’t help anyway because the money will just be squandered away like the rest of it is.
Groceries are high enough. 7 bucks for a head of cauliflower
Sacramento takes our fuel tax money , how much now dollar a gallon, puts it in the general fund. Every pot hole is a cascade of verbal abuse to the pompadour govner.
Put a time limit on this tax. Summer and Fall
The only redeeming factor is that ALL purchasers will be paying the tax, that ( if all goes legally) will go to roads… IE: All the Lake County and Northern Sonoma County people who trek to Costco in Ukiah… the people who buy vehicles in Mendocino Co…not just Mendocino Co residents…All those folks use the roads , why not have them help pay for thei maintenance ..?
Mendocino County’s roads have historically been rated among the worst in California. Over time, the County has accumulated hundreds of millions in deferred maintenance. We need $345.4 million over two decades to bring the road network to a sustainable condition. Funding relies heavily on SB 1 state funds and grants rather than general fund revenue. However, California is deeply in debt. The state government we depend upon holds roughly $497 billion in debt, ranking it highest in the nation. A penny sales tax increase for us living here will not fix this.
Mountain House Road has so many people that reside on it. Of all the roads in Mendocino County, this one was a top priority for MCDOT, to improve the commute for the 5 families that use it. Awesome use of funding and County resources!
The BOS shouldn’t waste time trying to get a road tax on the November ballot. It would be a waste of time and money because it wouldn’t have a chance in hell of getting the 2/3 of votes needed to pass. All opponents have to do is go to the recent CA Auditor’s report of Mendocino County for some choice quotes. (https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2025-049/)
How about this one from the report summary:
“Moreover, Mendocino’s procurement and financial reporting processes leave it vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. We found insufficient documentation or justifications for nearly half of the 30 expenditures we reviewed and found some expenditures violated prohibitions on direct funding of religious organizations and gifts of public funds.”
or, even better, this one from page 9 of the report:
“The county estimated that as of December 2025 it needed to collect $30.6 million in taxes, penalties, interest, and fees related to properties in default status.”
Why vote for a tax to raise $5-6 million when there is $30.6 million in uncollected taxes?
Opponents will have a field day with other quotes from the CA Auditor’s report.
Tax the folks that use the road for their property access. (Make it a district tax on the property itself) Someone who lives outside of Ukiah shouldn’t be paying for 5 residence’s 15 mile long road in Covelo or Gualala. Sales tax works when you have larger density and in a smaller area like Ukiah. Or…Let cities (like Ukiah’s annex proposal) take over jurisdiction over their regional valley’s which would take these roads off the counties dime.
County’s dime.