I have to disagree with Mike Rotkin’s view that raising sales taxes in both the city and county of Santa Cruz is “the right thing to do” and “makes sense.” It absolutely is not and does not.
The reasoning for the tax hikes are to fund the “fight against homeless” and to have funds to match state monies for the state-mandated housing units that all communities are being forced to build. First off, for the funds for the homeless, they are already there and flowing into the county’s coffers. These funds need to be redistributed and spent properly to actually help the homeless. Funds need to be given to the city from the county, as it is in the city where the majority of homeless services are, and for way too long the city has had to spend monies from the general fund to cover these services, while the county has not contributed its fair share to fund the city services that county homeless benefit from.
Also funds being given to top-heavy organizations that skim large profits and leave only pennies that actually go to help the homeless need to be eliminated and given to organizations that actually help the people who want help and quit spending money on the “services resistant.”
The claim that we need money to match state grants to build more “affordable” housing is untrue. The city and county simply need to have the developers and builders who profit massively from building these projects to pay these matching funds eliminating the need to raise taxes to do so.
Yes, tourists pay their fair share of taxes when they visit Santa Cruz, but that does not make it OK to place more of a tax burden on the residents who already are taxed too much for the privilege to work their tails off just to try and live here.
Let’s use the tools already in our toolbox, vote no on Measures K and L.
Mahalo,
Brent Ruhne
Santa Cruz