Santa Clara County and San Jose considering local taxes

Aka:  Cities and counties spend our tax money to promote taxes. There's a consultant for that. 

Silicon Valley Mercury News/Tracy Seipel and John Woolfolk, 8/6/12.  "Santa Clara County, San Jose city leaders set to decide on sales tax measures."

Yummy taxes, both 1/2 cent, and 1/8 cent

"On Tuesday, both the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the San Jose City Council will debate separate tax proposals, against the backdrop of a shaky national economy that has a lot of voters feeling like Puentes does. The supervisors are expected to approve their measure, sending it to the November ballot, but the City Council is more closely divided and it could go either way.

....  County supervisors plan to seek a one-eighth-cent sales tax to pay for such things as law enforcement, hospital emergency room   If passed, the tax would raise an additional $458 million over its 10-year life span. It would also send the county's sales tax rate to 8.5 percent, tying it for third highest in the state. And that doesn't even include Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed quarter-cent sales tax measure that would be on the same ballot. services, health care for low-income children, housing for homeless, programs to help students stay in school, and job creation.

....  Meanwhile, in San Jose, the city manager has recommended a 15-year, half-cent sales tax. A shorter-lived or smaller quarter-cent tax polls better, but even that has iffy chances of passing. Still, the city manager's office said the estimated $28 million to $32 million a year in new revenue from a quarter-cent tax wouldn't go far enough to cover the needs of a city forced to deeply cut services after a decade of budget deficits.  A half-cent tax would deliver an estimated $56 million to $64 million a year to restore cuts in services to libraries, parks, police and fire protection and road maintenance, the manager's office said.

San Jose resident and real estate broker Fred Hibbert said he'd be more inclined to vote for both the city and county sales taxes if their life spans were two to five years. Anything beyond that he calls "ridiculous," because it doesn't force local governments to become more efficient."   Read Article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh