I oppose the Santa Maria Measure “U” Sales Tax Increase for the following reasons:
The essential services of law enforcement and fire protection should be the top priority of the General Fund and not be exploited for more taxes. The levee and flood prevention is the responsibility of the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District. If major improvements are needed to keep the levee safe, it should be funded by a district bond Issue.
The city officials complain about the state takeaways and yet are willing to subsidize the 101 Freeway system that the people are already paying for with federal and state gas tax money. Our elected officials are committing $140 million (Measure “A” Sales Tax Allocation) of our local sales tax money for the 101 Freeway. To impose double taxation on the people of Santa Maria represents fiscal irresponsibility.
The Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce is a special interest organization for the business, motel/hotel, and grape wine industries. The city taxpayers are subsidizing this special interest organization with more than approximately $600,000 (Santa Maria City Budget 2011) annually. Why should the people subsidize this special interest organization with this excessive amount? The city could budget $50,000 annually for advertising, saving $550,000 for essential city services.
The city has a bonus program called Performance Based Pay for our well-paid department heads. For example, the city manager who retired in 2011 received a bonus of $17,062 (Grand Jury Compensation survey 2010-2011) on top of his annual salary of $223,943, thereby increasing his retirement pay. This is called spiking the retirement pay at the expense of the taxpayers. The private businesses pay bonuses based on increased profits; the highly paid bureaucrats are given a bonus for increasing our taxes and water rates.
The above reasons are enough to vote “NO” on Measure “U” on June 5, 2012, to send a strong message to our elected officials to be fiscally responsible.
Toru Miyoshi is a Santa Maria resident and former city councilman and county supervisor. Send comments to the executive editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 10-17, 2012.