Investigation: Santa Clara County pushes tax hike with “no plan to reign in spending”
To address a budget shortfall, Measure A will raise the sales tax up to 10.5%. This comes after the supes scoured the budget for savings, right? According to Santa Clara News Online, no such effort has been made. Instead, SC County leaders let rising costs strain the $13 billion government without even asking why, much less attempting to trim the fat. Robert Haugh reports.
Santa Clara News Online (SCNO) requested how [Supervisor Susan Ellenberg] and the Board identified cost savings before asking voters to increase the sales tax to be one of the highest in the state.
Depending on where you’re shopping in the County, the sales tax could increase to 9.75% to 10.5%.
For a committee charged with overseeing Santa Clara County’s $13 billion government, the [Finance and Government Operations Committee (FGOC)] spent most of 2025 doing very little about the “finance” part of its title.
During the five meetings this year, the two-member panel – Supervisors Ellenberg and Betty Duong – didn’t identify a single cost-saving measure, budget reduction, or plan to rein in spending.
Nowhere in the minutes is there any evidence that Duong or Ellenberg asked County departments to find efficiencies, trim costs, or even explain rising expenses.
While health care, labor costs, and capital projects strained the County budgets, Ellenberg’s FGOC and the Board of Supervisors didn’t do any cost cutting before asking voters to raise the sales tax.
Read the whole thing here.
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity
We prize letters from our thoughtful readers. Typed on a Smith Corona. Written in longhand on fine stationery. Scribbled on a napkin. Hey, even composed on email. Feel free to send your comments to us at opportunitynowsv@gmail.com or (snail mail) 1590 Calaveras Ave., SJ, CA 95126. Remember to be thoughtful and polite. We will post letters on an irregular basis on the main Opp Now site.