SJ Council finds even more novel ways to jack local taxes
Measure A hasn't even been implemented yet. But that hasn't dissuaded SJ City Council from aiming to squeeze hapless businesses and residents with altogether new ways of funding the City's bloated budgets.
New biz levies
On Tuesday 2.10, Council unanimously (and yep, that includes defectors from the fiscally responsible team Casey, Doan, Mahan, and Mulcahy) approved advancing two new levies:
The mayor and council unanimously voted to place a hotel tax increase of 2% on the November ballot.
The mayor and council unanimously passed a resolution in support of AB 1633 (50% tax on for profit federal immigration law enforcement detention centers)
And upcoming: The city has also endorsed moving forward with SB63, a bailout of the region's feckless and bankrupt mass transit systems as well as push-polling a One Big Bailout Bond to bailout a bevy of so-called infrastructure projects.
Prognosis fulfilled?
Contributor Philip Davenport asks us to re-post his November 2025 prediction regarding the inevitable leftward tilt of local Dem pols:
With Newsom's rise as the Great Trump Slayer via his Prop 50 rout, Mahan will quietly surrender his "pragmatic progressive" props, and get back under the tent of Lefty California Dems. No more kicking Newsom in the shins over his tweets. No more complaining about Newsom's presidential ambitions. No more Revolution of Common Sense. He will follow his party's ongoing tilt leftward, disappointing the moderates and centrists who helped elect him back in 2022. And he'll bring Casey, Mulcahy, and Doan along for the ride. Look for a lot more unanimous votes on lefty projects, making it look like Cindy Chavez is still pulling the Council's strings.
--Philip Davenport
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