After that Chris Sheridan note a few days ago reporting that David Stern said things are looking good on the arena front here in the River City, it was a matter of time before The Bee had something.

Well, here's the metro section's Mary Lynne Vellinga in today's issue:

In simpler terms, you'd have say Measure A and Measure B.

Measure A would ask voters if they support a general half-cent sales tax to be assessed in Sacramento County. Voters would say 'yes' or 'no.'

Measure B would ask voters if they think the county should fund a new arena in Sacramento County using the new tax revenue. Voters would say 'yes' or 'no.'

If 50 percent of the voters say yes to A, the tax can be assessed. If 50 percent of the voter say yes to A and B, the tax can be assessed and used to pay for a new arena. If A fails, nothing happens. If B fails, I assume the county would hold off on assessing the tax and give B another try.

Getting on the ballot is somewhat tricky, though. Here are the steps as I understand them:

Again, my experience has mostly been in transportation taxes, so this is kind of tentative. Step #2 is obviously confounding, so here's an attempt to further describe it.The county has seven cities. So including the governing body of the unincorporated territory (which is the county Board of Supervisors), you have eight boards to vote on putting the measures on the ballot. They are:

So, essentially, to get the measure on the ballot, the county board and three of the smaller cities need to vote it on, so that the boards representing at least half of the county populations say "Yay." The Sacramento council would be gravy, but it's not needed. That's good: The less you rely on guys in Sacramento City Hall, the better.We'll get more into this later this week. Remember, though: Voters are fickle. The best way to increase the sentiment in support of a tax in town is to win, win, win.

Let's go arena!