Sacramento Sales Tax Seeks to Improve Impoverished Areas

The Sacramento Bee reported on June 7 that Sacramento is trying to pass a half-cent sales tax to improve the impoverished areas.  This increase would be in addition to the proposal to permanently extend the Measure U half-cent sales tax.

Currently, Measure U is set to expire in March.  It brings in approximately $50 million each year for the police, fire, and parks.  Public service is a cause that people are willing to support, so passing the extension will not be hard to do.  However, people are not as willing to pay for public improvements which is why the proposal for the improvement tax is piggybacking on the Measure U ballot.

Until now, all the focus has been on improving the downtown area leaving the neighborhoods that struggle with poverty and crime to continue on a downward spiral.  Mayor Steinberg wants to stop the spiral and bring the economic revival that downtown is experiencing to the struggling neighborhoods.  To accomplish this the $50 million dollars raised by the new half-cent sales tax will be split.  Neighborhood services and workforce development will receive $25 million dollars.  The remaining $25 million dollars will go toward a capital fund for housing and jobs.

The unique aspect of this tax is that it is designed to be a matching tax.  Steinberg would like to see the money raised matched by private and public funding.  His long-term vision is to not raise only $500 million with the tax.  Ultimately, he would like to raise $2 billion with the matching funds to bring Sacramento's neighborhoods out of poverty.  Pitching this tax proposal as a matching fund proposal in conjunction with Measure U will give the sales tax initiative a fighting chance.