Both Santa Clara County Supervisors and the Morgan Hill City
Council are seriously considering asking voters to approve sales
tax measures this November.
Both Santa Clara County Supervisors and the Morgan Hill City Council are seriously considering asking voters to approve sales tax measures this November.
Details are still sketchy about the county’s plan, which has yet to be approved by supervisors. The county is considering placing a one-half cent sales tax measure on the November ballot to help fund county programs. Any city that participates in the sales tax plan would keep one-third of the new sales tax revenue generated within its borders. Councilman Larry Carr has said that Morgan Hill would see $1 million a year if supervisors and then voters approve the county’s sales tax plan.
Meanwhile, Morgan Hill officials are mulling placing a one-quarter cent sales tax measure on the ballot. If that plan were approved by City Council and then voters, Morgan Hill would raise $1.1 million in annual revenues.
County Supervisor Don Gage has gone on record opposing the county’s sales tax plan, and he’s absolutely right.
First, we predict failure at the polls for either of these measures. Between the poor economy, still-high unemployment, increasing government debt and rising fees, voters are unlikely to approve raising the sales tax to 8 3/4 percent in the county, or a whopping 9 percent in Morgan Hill if both measures were approved.
Second, the sales tax proposal is the wrong fix for a problem that is the fault of state officials. State politicians have repeatedly raided local governements – read cities and counties – of billions of dollars of funds that were earmarked for local coffers and diverted them to Sacramento to fix the chronic state budget mess.
The real solution – and voters need to be vocal about this – is for the governor and state legislators to overhaul state spending and to take Sacramento out of the middleman business so it can’t get its hands on monies that belong to schools and local governments.
Call your local government officials and tell them not to put sales tax measures on the ballot this November. And even more importantly, write your state legislators and tell them to cut spending and keep their hands off local governments’ money.
