Stacked sales taxes, stagnant services
Santa Clara County leaders keep stacking “just a little more” onto the sales tax rate—now eyeing a countywide health-care tax atop SB 63’s potential 0.5% transit levy. With flat population and a county budget that’s tripled since 2012, residents are paying more for the same potholes and emptier buses & trains. Athan Joshi reports in this Opp Now exclusive.
Silicon Valley’s prosperity has given local leaders an easy lever: raise the sales tax a little here, extend it there, and promise that this time the money will fix what ails us. The latest proposal, a new countywide sales tax for health care now being readied for the ballot continues the pattern. Santa Clara County officials are preparing a measure to help backfill looming shortfalls at the public hospital system. At the same time, the State Government is advancing SB 63, the regional “Keep Transit Alive” bill that would authorize a half-cent sales tax on the November 2026 ballot across multiple Bay Area counties, with Santa Clara eligible to join.
Stack the county’s health-care tax on top of SB 63 and the result is stark: residents in parts of the county would pay over 10% sales tax. Campbell already sits at 9.875% after its 2024 voter-approved increase; add SB 63’s 0.5% plus the proposed 0.625% health care tax and you are at 11%. San Jose is at 9.375% today; add on 0.5% and it jumps to 9.875%, and a county health-care tax of even 0.625% would push it past 10%. A 10% sales tax means $100 extra on a $1,000 purchase, a burden that weighs heavier on those with less.
This isn’t happening by accident. Over the past decade, the county has renewed or added multiple layers: the 2012 Measure A one-eighth-cent general tax for county services, and 2016’s Measure B, a half-cent for VTA that began collections in 2017. Cities layered on their own district taxes. Each step was marketed as modest or temporary. The cumulative rate is neither.
What’s striking is how this tax creep has unfolded against a backdrop of population stagnation. Santa Clara County’s population has hovered around 1.9 million for roughly a decade, with minimal net growth since 2010. Yet the tax burden has climbed steadily. The county’s budget has ballooned—from roughly $4 billion in 2012 to about $14 billion today —without commensurate service gains that residents can point to. Roads remain potholed. Transit ridership is still below pre-2019 levels at VTA and Caltrain, even as operating subsidies rise. Health-care access, particularly at Valley Medical Center, is strained by long waits and chronic understaffing. The public keeps paying more for outcomes that do not improve.
County leaders’ response has been familiar: more taxes, not better management. They pushed measures in 2019, 2020, and now 2025, despite voter skepticism about how funds are allocated. In 2019, a proposed five-eights-cent increase fizzled for lack of support among supervisors. In 2020, a COVID-19 relief tax failed to garner enough votes. Yet the county persists, returning to the same regressive instrument and hoping fatigue passes for consent.
The high sales tax is just one piece of a broader affordability crisis crushing Santa Clara County residents. Gas prices at around $5 per gallon are among the highest in the country. Utility bills have climbed roughly 30% since 2020 amid wildfire mitigation and grid upgrades. Insurance premiums and fees are up. This cumulative burden is driving longtime residents out of the county.
Santa Clara County’s leadership seems to view the tech boom as a blank check. With no population growth to justify the increases and no visible service upgrades, residents are right to question the County’s priorities. As the November 2025 ballot looms, voters face a choice: acquiesce to another tax hike or demand accountability for the billions already collected. In a region defined by innovation, it’s time for the government to innovate too—by living within its means rather than squeezing its people dry.
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