☆ SJ Mayor and SCC DA base Measure A endorsement on misdirection and squirrely logic
It “seems odd,” says SVTA Board Member Elizabeth Brierly, that the DA would predict cuts to law enforcement if Measure A doesn’t pass. The feds already increased public safety spending, but now Santa Clara County supes want residents to pay even more? In this Opportunity Now exclusive rebuttal to comments in the Merc, Brierly says the massive county tax precludes cities from raising their own sales tax rates. Is San Jose’s leadership confident there won’t be a deficit in the next five years?
District Attorney Jeff Rosen says: “If the sales tax measure doesn’t pass, it’s clear to me that there’s going to be cuts to law enforcement in the county, cuts to the DA’s office and cuts to the Sheriff’s office.”
Silicon Valley Taxpayer Association responds: The county has been telling us Measure A money is only for the hospitals, so that seems odd. They say this money won’t go to law enforcement, but because Measure A is a general tax, they’re throwing law enforcement and “public safety” in the pot, and they’re mixing it all around.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that this general tax revenue would wind up funding those popular services, either.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan says: “Passing this temporary stopgap measure will be a painful sacrifice for families who have already sent their hard-earned dollars to Washington for that very purpose.”
SVTA responds: We send our money to Washington to be spent on a variety of federal purposes, like national defense. Santa Clara County chose to enter the hospital business in a way that no other county in the state of California has, and that was very risky. The county really should sell one of the hospitals to one of the bidders that wanted to buy it in the past, like Prime Healthcare.
SJ Merc: [Mahan’s] endorsement [comes] down to two factors: the impact of federal cuts on public safety…
SVTA responds: Well, I would disagree. Public safety grants and funding have been strongly supported by the current administration. Now, if local government officials poke the federal government in the eye and violate federal law and lose out on federal funds, then that’s on them.
SJ Merc continues: …and a recent agreement from the county to provide health services at city-funded shelters.
SVTA responds: I’m not sure why we’re so excited about the county doing the job they should have been doing for the last decade.
The County of Santa Clara is the only local government entity responsible for social welfare; the city of San Jose is not. However, the county, historically, has done a lackluster, underwhelming job, driving its cities to spend their general-fund dollars, which could have been spent on police, and allocate those dollars toward social welfare.
This political campaign for Measure A is being marketed as saving hospitals, when this reveals that the money can actually be spent on anything.
Mahan says: “Collaboration must start with a shared acknowledgement on the city and county side that we don’t have limitless resources, we cannot continuously go back to the voters for more money…In a world in which we’re getting less support from the federal and state government…”
SVTA responds: The one area where grant money and federal funding are strong is law enforcement and justice. Counties continue to receive significant federal dollars, because that’s a priority of the current administration.
Mahan says: “We have to prioritize.”
SVTA responds: Agreed! And if you have to prioritize, then the county should sell a hospital.
Mahan says: “We have to adopt technology.”
SVTA responds: If there are untapped technologies that could be saving taxpayer dollars while improving patient outcomes, sure. Why hasn’t the county adopted them already?
Mahan says: “We have to be radically more transparent and efficient with our use of funds.”
SVTA responds: Indeed, but the county is not transparent. The Board of Supervisors took a stealth vote to put Measure A on a special ballot within less than 24 hours of the agenda being publicly available.
Mahan says: “We’re going to have to think and act differently going forward.”
SVTA responds: We don’t know what conversations the mayor has had, but this is an incredible amount of money, through a tax rate increase that prevents San Jose—and any other city in the county, for that matter—from pursuing a tax increase. So my assumption is that the mayor feels confident that there will be no budget deficits in his city over the next five years.”
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