Another Tax Grab
Walnut Creek, CA has proposed yet another sales tax increase, raising the rate to 9.25%, a significant hit on any large purchase. The money is targeted at “crime prevention; public safety; disaster preparedness; parks and open space; youth and senior programs; sustainability initiatives; local business support; replacing aging facilities at Heather Farm Park with a modern aquatics and community center; and other important facilities and services. This increased sales tax would bring in approximately $11,000,000 annually for 10 years, requiring annual independent audits, citizens’ oversight, and all funds benefitting Walnut Creek.” You may believe in all the oversight; I don’t.
The problems are many. One: No sales tax increase has ever been backed off, so the 10-year end date is meaningless. They’ll just vote to keep it (or increase it. Two: Why not have the independent audit first, to see how much waste is in our budget already. Reviews of other California cities have shown that as long as they can keep gouging the taxpayer, no thought is given to budgeting, as all of us must do to survive. Three: Many of these things are wants, not needs. Though our community center and pool are old, couldn’t they be more cheaply updated a bit, rather than razed and replaced? Four: Some of these items are really not going to be funded the way citizens want. We all would like to feel safe in our town, but after the violent BLM actions and the recent thuggish looting at Nordstrom’s, we don’t see the city doing the right thing. (The police, however, are doing the best they can, while getting little support from town or county politicians.)
The Backstory
As the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association notes; “in an effort to circumvent the two-thirds vote requirement for special taxes, some cities and counties have placed majority vote general sales tax increase measures on the ballot along with a companion advisory measure “advising” local officials how to spend the tax proceeds without actually legally dedicating the tax proceeds for the “advised” purposes.”
We’ve seen this in El Cerrito, where numerous increases in taxes “for the schools,” never seemed to result in any action. All of the described “protection” was cited in those tax grabs, but it doesn’t work. When they see they can get more money, they’ll go for it, spending it in any way they see fit, even if the public wouldn’t have voted for the spending if they had known what it actually meant.
We dug into our pockets years back for a new library. The resulting building is not all that great—it’s missing the warm feeling of the older, smaller library and the few times I’ve been there, I don’t see many people using the library itself. They overbuilt it, put in loads of things we didn’t need and basically spent our money like it was water spilling from their own pockets.
Groups supportive of tax grabs have defined ways communities can twist the arms of their voters to get the money without the real accountability. Successful implementation has resulted in highly regressive taxes in communities. While low-income people often pay no income tax, everyone has to shop. For larger purchases, you now have to carefully consider the tax as you look at price. Critical items have become unaffordable for many, including medicine.
What Can We Do?
First: Keep on top of tax proposals in your community. Ignore the claims that the tax is temporary; it’s never revoked. Ignore what they claim to want to fund. They keep an ear to the ground to push what they believe people want, but the money is never clearly earmarked. It can go to anything they want, including their own perks and salaries.
Second: Demand accountability. We should be able to see line-item budgets and have them annually reviewed to look for savings opportunities. As residents of Walnut Creek, we have to budget and manage within our income; the government should do the same. We taxpayers are no bottomless well of money. Our elected officials are NOT the “smart people in the room” who know how to spend our money better than we do. Express your concerns at local meetings. Write to the city council.
Third: When you learn they intend to put the tax measure on the ballot, write a cogent ballot argument. If there is no good argument offered against the ballot measure, many will vote for it, believing that this is the only way to sustain and improve their community. We all want to live in a great city. But at this point in time, we have no idea how much waste there is in the budget nor how these people are actually spending our money.
Fourth: Get the word out. If you care about this issue, post your concerns on social media sites like NextDoor. Help others understand the problems with this proposal. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Complain at the city council meeting. When people become aware, they vote more intelligently.
Finally: Check out the Howard Jarvis site (link below). It can help you understand how you can make a difference and keep your sales taxes, (already too high), at the current level.