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Uploaded: Thursday, August 2, 2012, 1:42 PM
Santa Clara County voters may face tax question
County supervisors vote to place one-eighth-of-a-cent sales-tax boost on ballot
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Voters in Santa Clara County may be asked to approve a one-eighth-of-a-cent boost in the sales tax this November.
Currently, retail transactions in the county are subject to a tax of 8.375 percent.
The Board of Supervisors Wednesday voted 4-1 to place the tax increase on the Nov. 6 ballot. The board needs to give secondary approval to the measure at its Aug. 7 meeting before it can go on the ballot.
Supervisor Mike Wasserman of Los Gatos cast the dissenting vote.
Voting to put the measure on the ballot were supervisors Liz Kniss of Palo Alto, Dave Cortese of San Jose, George Shirakawa of San Jose and Ken Yeager of San Jose.
After 10 consecutive years of substantial budget gaps, "the county, in effect, exhausted its strategies to avoid steep reductions to direct services, and we may no longer enjoy robust growth in property tax revenues that have sustained county programs over the past 30 years," a staff report said.
The county executive's 2013 budget message depicts "significant threats on the expense side of the budget, including paying down unfunded liability for retiree health, increased CalPERS (employee pension) costs and concessions yet to be negotiated with open bargaining units," the staff report said.
County retiree health costs have been funded at 50 percent of the normal cost in recent years, the report said. For fiscal year 2013, the county funded 100 percent of normal cost ($72.2 million), but only 75 percent of it with ongoing funds.
The plan for future years is to fund 100 percent of the normal cost with ongoing resources so the unfunded liability of $1.6 billion does not grow larger, the report said.
The county still must negotiate $15 million in concessions with bargaining unit concessions in order to achieve the $75 million in total salary and benefit savings built into the 2013 budget, the report said.
The ballot measure was opposed by the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
"The business community believes that it is critical that the county address the fiscal issue of long term, sustainable pension and benefit reform before seeking any increased tax revenues from the businesses and residents of Santa Clara County," Chamber President and CEO Matthew R. Mahood said in a letter to the chairman of the supervisors.— Palo Alto Weekly staff Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Tired Of Taxes, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 2:27 pm Spend less...
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Posted by Not So Fast w/ the Cash, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 2:30 pm They should take the amount of money estimated gained by this tax, then craft a salary reduction plan for county employees that will achieve the same results. I'd like to compare options and see which looks best overall for the county and the majority of its residents.
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Posted by Steve Ly, a resident of another community, on Aug 2, 2012 at 2:54 pm I'm voting "NO." Our combined tax burden is too high and politicians continue to push wasteful projects like high-speed rail.
I'll vote against all tax increase proposals until government learns to live within its means.
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Posted by A. Lincoln, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 3:37 pm I will support progressive taxes - like income tax - but I will no longer support regressive taxes like the sales tax. I'm voting against this.
We should abolish the sales tax entirely, and depend upon income taxes and useage taxes.
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Posted by gcoladon, a resident of the North Whisman neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 5:00 pm
gcoladon is a member (registered user) of Mountain View Online For those interested in the facts and figures of the county budget, the 2012 budget is available here:
Web Link
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Posted by Statistician, a resident of the Jackson Park neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 5:31 pm Facts and figures? This is the Internet! We don't need no stinking facts and figures.
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Posted by letsgetreal, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 7:50 pm NO NO NO
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Posted by George, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Aug 3, 2012 at 2:03 pm Let's see....Hummmmm 8.3 % and going up. Darn near 10 % at the State level, 20 to 35 % Fed Inc Tax, 45 cents per gallon fed tax,,,,(avg.= roughly $225... per year... Ya Know What ??
Vote for ANYONE that is for NO NEW TAXES,, Cut out the give-away mentality (get a job or starv or at least WORK for your welfare check + drug tests), Cut illegal's benefits... and darn, we might have a society worth keeping...
And "they" wonder why bartering and under the table jobs are popular ???
Bye George
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Posted by Doug Pearson, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Aug 3, 2012 at 3:32 pm I agree with A. Lincoln that regressive taxes are a bad idea and even though the sales tax is not as regressive as it could be (because many essentials are not taxed), it is still regressive.
I will support this tax increase, however, because the County needs it and, contrary to many other posters, I believe the County has already cut back too much. I also disagree with the notion that government employees are generally overpaid (though there are exceptions) and I believe the California pension system is in need of revision, not cancellation.
I would also support a dramatic revision of the sales tax code to add non-essential services such as tax return preparation services, investment fund management services, investment brokerage services and a wide variety of other financial and legal services.
However, such essential services as education and health services should not be taxed, even when they are not provided by the government.
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Posted by Otto Maddox, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Aug 6, 2012 at 8:13 am I'll add my NO vote to the chorus here.
Also, our civil "servants" are overpaid at all levels. It used to be they were paid less, but had good benefits.
Now they have both good pay and benefits way better than the people who pay their salaries. I speak from direct experience. I used to work for the City.
Time to put a stop to this gravy train.
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Posted by Bill Hough, a resident of another community, on Aug 9, 2012 at 8:43 am Imagine my shock to read on your website that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors want to jack up out sales tax yet again. These days, every ballot contains a tax increase proposal. Didn’t we just approve a BART tax and a vehicle registration fee? When will it end?
For all practical purposes, we’re still in a recession. Despite this, governments at all levels refuse to cut spending as evidenced by Governor Brown’s determination to issue high speed rail bonds that we can’t afford to pay back. Despite this, the governor wants voters to agree to raise state taxes in November. Now the county is piling on in the effort to increase our already excessive taxes.
In this miserable economic climate, it is offensive for the County to propose piling on the tax burden. Vote “NO” an all tax increases this November. I will campaign and vote against it and encourage others to do likewise.
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Posted by Kman, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Aug 9, 2012 at 4:45 pm Government in general is way to big. When I see 3 chiefs watching one worker do the job, then there is something really wrong with that picture.
California has over 500 government run agency. All of those staffed with government workers picking up a nice salary and benefits.
Government needs to reduce the fat, the waste, and find where all the hidden money has gone. People can look at pie charts all day, but the devil is in the details. And it's the details that will tell the story of the waste and abuse from the higher ups and the lower downs.
Will anything change, NO. What we have here is the Fox guarding the hen house. Were the fox is the government and the hen house is the people. Rather then cutting the abuses, they threaten to cut from the needed essentials, police, schools, and seniors. Something really wrong here.
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