TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

California Tax: Woodland Chamber of Commerce position on sales tax measure is wrong

I wanted to address this to my friends at the Woodland Chamber of Commerce but then decided it had broader significance. The Chamber has taken two positions recently with which I have issues. Firstly, they are opposing Measure V on the local ballot. This is a small sales tax increase for four years to keep essential city services intact, things we all appreciate like the library, senior programs, maintenance of our parks and keeping sworn police and fire officers at current levels.

At the City Council meeting on June 1, Jim Hilliard, Chamber president, basically characterized Measure V and the advisory measure S, T, and U, as Band-Aids. You know, he's right, Measure V is a bridge for four years until what we hope will be an economic turn around. The mischaracterization is that it will be business-killing because it raises the Woodland sales tax to 9 percent. Let's be clear- Woodland actually gets, currently, 1.75 percent of the sales tax - 1 percent is situs (everyone gets this) and 0.25 percent is Transportation Development Act, then 0.5 percent is the local Measure E tax. We're talking about raising Woodland's cut to 2 percent. The rest goes to the state (we see none of it). In addition, about 40 percent of the sales tax in Woodland comes from people who don't live here but shop here. It seems to me to be a good way to spread the costs.

They claim it will put Woodland businesses at a competitive disadvantage - sure, I'll travel to Sacramento to save 25 cents on a 100 dollar purchase - that's the amount of the tax we're talking about. The savings wouldn't pay for the gas.

The City Council has already cut over $7 million out of the general fund budget over the past two years, and now we have to cut another $5.8 million. We've reduce the budget over 25 percent - so Chamber, where exactly is the "waste" you want cut? We're down to cutting muscle - we've already eliminated fat.

I admire and respect many of the Chamber members, people who are good at their jobs and have a great deal of experience, but in this case I'm afraid they let ideology guide them, as in no new taxes. I don't believe they really thought it through.

Secondly, and this astonishes me, they are supporting Prop. 16, the PG&E end run. On the one hand they appear supportive of business, but on the other they assure a locked-in monopoly for their power supplier. PG&E has no qualms about it- they are protecting stock holders from having to fend off further attempts by municipalities to either join public power agencies or purchase power as cooperatives, and once again they are buying an election.

The issue for me is that a corporation is trying to insert an amendment in the state constitution using the initiative process, which was designed for citizens to have redress, and that once again an entity which has no accountability to the public is trying to muck around with local municipal finances. This proposition is a naked power grab and we need to defeat it. It doesn't give you a right to vote- you already have that- it creates a "super minority" that can stop any creative thinking about how to get better power providers into the state.

I hope you all vote on June 8 - it is both a right and a responsibility. Please think about where you live and how you want your city to look five years down the road. We spend nearly $900,000 a year pumping ground water - I'd like the chance to find a cheaper supplier of power. I'd also like not to have to lay off police officers and firemen, and certainly not close the library. I ran for office because I wanted to serve my community, but I have to have the tools, and you're the only ones who can give them to me. Governing and politics are not the same thing- I want to do a good job at governing.