June 4, 2008 Citywide Sales Tax Increase Passes

Not surprisingly, the citywide sales tax increase referendum passed.

The vote was 979 YES and 525 NO.

Very low voter turnout.

County Commissioners will no doubt implement step two of the Plan B alternative countywide sales tax referendum in short order.

[Plan A was the failed February 5 referendum for a countywide sales tax increase.]

Plan B is the alternative two-step countywide sales tax increase.

Step one: passage of the citywide sales tax increase through a carrot-and-stick "pick your poison" offer to city voters. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Step two: passage of the sales tax increase by county voters (outside the city) through a campaign to capture $1 million of the city's $2 million sales tax increase for education. County voters will NOT be offered even a temporary property tax rollback as were city voters.

Watch for the word "opportunity"---that's the latest buzzword. This will be an "opportunity" to add $1 million to education spending.

In the end the result is the same as the initially rejected countywide referendum. It just took more time and effort to educate and persuade those pesky voters. Plus offering a temporary carrot or two to get the desired long-term outcome.

According to the government (just ask them or watch the news reports/press releases), government financial problems are always the result of low taxes/lack of revenue.

Government doesn't issue press releases and rarely do you see news reports (locally, anyway) about overspending due to multiple levels of administration, job creation and promotion for relatives and cronies, and perks that go beyond standard benefit packages.

And this brief list doesn't even include basic financial mismanagement due to no-bid contracts, multi-million dollar wish lists, and years and years of interest-only debt payments so that you just pass the debt on to the next generation.

It's far easier to just scream "more money" and put out press releases and use tax dollars to send out letters to get a YES vote on a tax increase than it is to tackle the real expenditure problems and to work to save and protect those hard-earned tax dollars.