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It appears residents of the unincorporated area will have a little more change in their pockets.

Measure L, the voter initiative to repeal the tax on water, natural gas, electricity, telephone and cable TV service and sewer, was winning by 10 percentage points, or more than 5,000 votes.

And that left proponents of the measure jumping with joy.

"Hey, Martha, look at this," said Tom Walsh, who helped gather signatures to get the measure on the ballot.

Martha Montelongo, a member of the Latino Chamber of Commerce, hopped up and down in the lobby of the Scotts Valley Hilton Hotel looking at an easel showing the measure’s lead.

"It says so much about the people of this county that they saw where the money was going, to pay increases, and they didn’t buy the Chicken Little screaming that the sky was falling act," she said. "Of course we want to feed children and clothe the elderly. But we don’t want to pay for large pay increases."

Opponents of the measure had said the loss of $10 million would cripple social services to children, senior citizens and the poor, including the Familia Center in Santa Cruz, Salud para la Gente in South County, the Santa Cruz AIDS Project, Women’s Crisis Support and the Stroke Center.

Tuesday’s vote was a long time in coming. After appeals to the Board of Supervisors, and a lawsuit by South County resident Harold Griffiths, a coalition of residents collected more than 6,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. The Griffith suit was filed in 1998 and calls the tax illegal. The case is before the Santa Cruz County Superior Court. The Sixth District Court of Appeals sent the case back to the county court in December.

Measure L supporters such as Walsh call the tax unfair and too expensive, especially as utility costs rose during the energy crisis.

At 11 p.m., opponents of the measure were hoping the tax repeal would fail by a hair’s breath as the gap narrowed, but as more precincts were counted, the margin widened again.

The tax is only paid by residents of the unincorporated areas of the county, but voters in the cities of Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Scotts Valley and Capitola were allowed to vote. County officials said it was fair because residents of all parts of the county benefit from the services the tax pays for. But the taxes opponents said the decision allows people who have no stake in the issue to vote.

The tax has been in place since 1991, when the state appropriated local money for state programs and told counties they could institute a utility tax to make up the difference.

But in 1996, voters passed Proposition 218, which requires a majority vote for new local taxes and allows voters to weigh in on taxes that were passed without voter approval before 1996.

Contact Heather Boerner at hboerner@santa-cruz.com.

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