SJ City readying a flurry ($800m worth!) of new taxes
SJ residents recently reported receiving an online poll from City Manager Jennifer Maguire exploring resident feelings about a tsunami of expensive new city taxes. The potential levies range from upgrading SAP Center to fixing storm drains. This type of polling is often used by cities to determine what messages might help a particular proposed tax increase succeed in an election. A summary of the poll's new tax 'n' spend aspirations below.
Upgrade SAP Center with modern safety codes & seismic retrofits. Maguire positions SAP Center, which benefits the billionaire owner of the SJ Sharks, as the city's "economic engine."
Fund repairs for natural disaster preparedness/emergencies--including storm drains and flooding.
Fund repairs for roads and bridges--positioned as "fixing potholes."
Fund new fire stations.
The most intriguing positioning idea included in the poll was Maguire's testing whether or not One Big Bailout Bond--wrapping together all these requests-- into a single "critical infrastructure" levy costing north of $800m, would be attractive to voters.
So much for making SJ more affordable; hold onto your wallets.
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