SACRAMENTO-
With about 52 percent of voters casting a “no” vote, Sacramento’s Measure B failed to pass Tuesday night.
The measure would have helped fund a streetcar system connecting Sacramento with West Sacramento.
The Sacramento County Elections office received a total of 1,215 ballots in the in the special mail-in election in which 3,747 people were eligible to vote.
The voters were people who own Sacramento property within three blocks of the proposed streetcar line.
They would have helped pay for the streetcar project with a property tax.
Proponents of the streetcar line, including Sacramento City Council Member Steve Hansen, plan to keep working to find a way to make the project a reality.
Measure B would have raised $30 million, but additional funding mechanisms are already in place, including $25 million from West Sacramento, and an expected $75 million federal grant to help pay for the $150 million project.
“We will find plan B since Measure B did not pass,” Hansen said Tuesday night. “We have identified all but $30 million of the funding we need, and we will work to find that $30 million.”
“This is not done,” added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. “It’s disappointing tonight. But … it’s something I think we will see in Sacramento in the next few years.”
The ballots were counted about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, but additional ballots may be counted this week because the deadline to have them postmarked or delivered to the elections office was 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Additional ballots are not expected to change the outcome of the election because the measure required a two-thirds majority to pass.
