Sacramento has had a half percent sales tax since 2012, but this tax is set to expire next year.  The mayor wants to not just replace it, but raise it to 1 percent and make the tax permanent.

The current tax is earmarked for police officers, firefighters, and parks.  The proposal would expand the earmark to cover other city projects, which might include affordable housing and new libraries.  It will go to committee on June 12, 2018, but will have to be approved in a city-wide vote in November.  The final version, thus, may not resemble the current proposal.  The proposal will continue to earmark half a cent towards police, fire and parks, and then send a quarter of a cent to neighborhood services, with the remainder going to a fund for jobs and housing.

Opponents, including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, claim that most of the tax will instead go to pension obligations.  They claim the city is not being entirely honest and that "more and more" of the general fund is going to cover unfunded pensions. Additionally, if the city is too specific about what the tax will go to, the tax will become a special tax and require a two-thirds majority rather than the normal simple majority. Another objection is that sales taxes tend to disproportionately burden the poor and are, thus, not a good way to fund measures designed to help them.

Approval would raise the total sales tax paid in Sacramento to 8.75 percent, the highest in the state.  Although food and prescription drugs are exempt, the tax would raise prices on other goods in the city.  However, the Mayor is convinced that the tax will be the best way to improve economic equality and fund improvements primarily in lower income neighborhoods.

The proposal, in some form, will go to Sacramento voters this fall, possibly alongside a local measure on rent control.
Brian Greer

Written by Brian Greer