The Placer County Transportation Planning Agency has scheduled four (the first was last week in Tahoe City) community forums to discuss Placer County traffic issues.  The forums are part of a gearing up toward placing a local half-cent sales tax for transportation on the Placer County ballot next November, as we reported in the Daily News Roundup last week.

The forums are all 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM as follows:

Monday, August 27, Maidu Community Center, Roseville

Tuesday, August 28, Whitney High School Cafeteria, Rocklin

Thursday, August 30, Auburn City Hall, Auburn

In support of these forums, the agency has sent a postcard to Placer voters warning of "LA style traffic" if we don't have a local funding source.

You can download a scanned version of the mailer here

The PCTPA has also launched a nifty new website to help with the effort.

Since our firm managed the successful extension of Orange County's Measure M last year, some have expressed interest in my firm managing this Placer effort.  I can tell you that getting a 2/3 vote in conservative counties is not easy.  And Orange County had the benefit of their measure being an extension of an existing tax, and a track record of delivering on the projects called for in the original Measure M. 

Even with that, the extension of Measure M in OC got 69.7% last year, just a 3% margin over the threshold.  I suspect the effort in Placer County will be more challenging.

This will compete with the Doolittle race, in my opinion, for the top political news in Placer County next year.