A broad group of community leaders today is expected to introduce a sales-tax initiative to help fund street repair and an interchange at Dorsey Drive and the Golden Center Freeway in Grass Valley, The Union has learned.

The group hopes to gather enough signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot.

The initiative, called the Hospital Access and Traffic Relief Act of 2008, calls for a half-cent increase in the local sales-tax rate. But it differs significantly from Measure T, the sales-tax measure that received a majority of the vote two years ago but failed to obtain the needed two-thirds approval required for any special tax increase.

"The (initiative) will only increase the sales tax by one-half cent for a period of 10 years, versus 20 years in Measure T, according to a copy of the measure, obtained by The Union late Thursday. A sales tax ensures that out-of-town users "pay their fair share" for the wear on roads, it reads.

• The measure only specifies the completion of the Dorsey Interchange "to provide needed access to the hospital as its first priority," as well as a comprehensive street paving program to fill potholes and pave crumbling roads. Unlike Measure T, it does not include funds for a downtown parking garage or trails for Wolf Creek Parkway.

• Unlike Measure T, it "codifies" the requirement for citizen oversight and community involvement and provides for "early termination of the sales tax before 10 years should it prove economically feasible."

• The funds "shall not be used to replace existing transportation or development impact funding," it also reads.

The initiative is expected to raise $16.75 million to help build the Dorsey Drive interchange and $13.25 million for rebuilding, resurfacing and maintaining city streets. The interchange will require state and federal funding as well, some of which has been set aside.

The initiative is being backed by community leaders who have not always agreed in the past but see the merits of an initiative aimed at relieving traffic congestion.

Former Grass Valley Mayors Patricia Ingram and DeVere Mautino, as well as former council member Steve Enos, are expected to file a notice with the city at noon to begin gathering signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot.

Ingram and Enos have been at odds in the past. But along with the new transportation measure, the two also have teamed up to oppose a growth initiative that would greatly alter the way residents make important development decisions.

The transportation measure's backers also are expected to include public safety officials and emergency-room doctors. An interchange at Dorsey Drive and the freeway will speed up entry to the hospital in emergencies, according to the doctors.

The group Citizens Concerned About Traffic had criticized Measure T for being less specific than a similar road-repair measure that passed in Nevada City two years ago. Others criticized the downtown parking garage. The new scaled-back measure is meant to address the concerns.

Others had criticized Measure T, arguing that a freeway interchange would benefit the Loma Rica Ranch housing development. This time around, Grass Valley public safety officials and doctors are rallying around the benefits of a freeway interchange for providing improved access to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and Sierra College.

"Two years later, the primary reasons for Measure T still remain: The need to complete the Dorsey interchange to create a vitally needed thoroughfare for the hospital and college and the need to repave our streets and fill potholes," according to the petition.