☆ Did SC County Supes try to deceive voters into a tax hike?
“It was prejudicial and misleading,” says long time Santa Clara County resident Dawn Davis of the Measure A ballot label. She and three other plaintiffs victoriously sued to remove some of the partisan language from the ballot summary. Although the hasty tax hike election will proceed, Davis believes the more honestly worded ballot might improve trust in local government. An Opp Now exclusive Q&A.
Opportunity Now: If you hadn’t sued to get some of the partisan language off the ballot label, do you think voters were going to be deceived about what Measure A really does?
Dawn Davis: It was prejudicial and misleading. They called it an impartial analysis. It was certainly not impartial. The grand jury in 2022 said that poorly worded ballot questions without information, to mislead the people, are unethical.
Disasters are supposed to be earthquakes, fires, volcano eruptions, and things like that. But the Measure A ballot wording said that because of Trump's cuts, the county government has to have this extra money. It seems like they were retaliating against Trump. So, they needed to amend their wording.
ON: Now that you've succeeded in getting some of the ballot wording amended, what message will your victory send to local leaders?
DD: It might improve people's perception that our leaders are actually taking care of the community.
ON: Your lawsuit also sought to block the special election, claiming there’s no legitimate emergency. Why are you against having a special election to increase the sales tax?
DD: I believe it's not good for the state and community to keep raising taxes.
ON: People might argue it's just a 5/8-of-a-cent sales tax increase. What’s the big deal?
DD: The government is just chipping away at the taxpayer. And a lot of times it's not for the good of all. I don't see that a lot of their results actually help us as a community or a county or a state. They keep raising taxes instead of economizing or trying to save money. You know, we have to watch our pennies, so they don’t have to.
ON: But even so, people will still say it's anti-community to oppose a tax that is supposed to help the public hospitals.
DD: I've lived here for over 70 years. I've always supported my community by supporting local businesses, helping my neighbors, and being a law-abiding citizen. If you really want to help your community, there are many ways to do that directly instead of through government. The government doesn’t know how to make the most of the money. It's a lot of waste.
ON: Is there a sense of tax fatigue among your neighbors?
DD: I talk to my neighbors, people who work for a living, and friends and family around this area. The people working and paying taxes are the most skeptical of all. A lot of them just don't trust the government, be it local, state, federal, and county. It's all become a money grab instead of people really taking care of us.
And Santa Clara is the only county in California that is doing sales tax increase in response to changes to Medicaid.
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