☆ Hinkle: how can SJ’s hotel tax be for “essential” services that are already in the budget?
Proponents of the Measure A tax on tourists claim it’s crucial to fund everything from police and fire, to illegal dumping prevention and park bathrooms. But wait, asks Mark Hinkle of the Silicon Valley Taxpayer Association: why aren’t these services already in the budget? And where will the money really go? An Opportunity Now exclusive Q&A.
ON: You said the ballot statement says that it’s to fund essential services, like police and fire and emergency response. But there’s already public safety funding in the budget, right?
Hinkle: Oh yeah, the city budget for police is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
ON: So they’re raising taxes for extra money, and calling it essential?
MH: Yes and if it’s essential, wouldn’t it already be in the budget?
I think a lot of people will take a look at it and say, well they want to support police and fire. But the city budget already does include that.
ON: So they’re making it sound essential when it’s not?
MH: It’s exceedingly clear what they're trying to do: who's going to be opposed to city services, including police and fire?
ON: What about the other funding goals in the ballot statement, like parks and homelessness?
MH: When you get down to homeless encampments, waterways, removing trash, and illegal dumping, people do expect the city government to do that. So why isn't that in the budget?
ON: If the city budget actually already does include these basic services, why a new tax?
MH: Does the city ever say let's put a tax increase on the ballot for the building department, or the planning department, or the vector control department, or all the bureaucracy that makes up city government? They don’t, because people don't want that, or don't even know what in the world it is.
But nobody's going to argue against police and fire protection.
ON: So you’re saying that because Measure A goes to the general fund, the money is fungible? Voters think they’re raising taxes for the listed services, but it could go to anything?
MH: That’s exactly right.
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