The City Council has voted unanimously to approve a November
election to consider raising the city sales tax to 8.25
percent.
The City Council has voted unanimously to approve a November election to consider raising the city sales tax to 8.25 percent.
The election will cost about $50,000 and if approved, the tax could raise $3.5 million to $4 million per year.
It’s hard to see why anybody would be against this when our most basic services, police and fire protection, are barely adequate.
I’m not saying they’re not doing a good job. I’m saying if we had a fire, a shooting and an auto collision on the same day, we might not have enough staff to handle them.
And those are the most visible services. The behind-the-scenes services, like planning and code enforcement, are trying to do the same job with fewer people.
Anybody who’s survived a “reduction in force” in the corporate world knows how much fun it is to work twice as hard for the same amount of money.
A 1 percent increase in sales tax is a relatively painless way to break the cycle of decline that has plagued Hollister since the wastewater plant overflowed and provoked a building moratorium.
Keep in mind that the sales tax is not applied to groceries. It’s the more discretionary purchases that will be affected.
How much is 1 percent?
For one example, it’s less than the increase when gas goes from $3.15 to $3.25 per gallon.
If you spend $10,000 on various taxable stuff during the year, the new tax will cost an additional $100, not a bad price if it helps keep your car from getting stolen.
I won’t bore you with additional math. You get the idea. The pain of the higher tax just isn’t going to be that severe.
Some people may be more concerned with how the tax will be spent. One comment had to do with raises and retirement plans for city employees. After all, why should the rest of us suffer so city employees can get a cushy deal?
I prefer to think of raises and retirement plans as insurance for our community. If we want to have quality city government, we need to attract and retain quality staff. We are competing with nearby cities that can afford to pay more. And we want city employees to be able to afford living in the city they serve.
Hollister’s financial troubles may be traceable to bad judgment and mistakes from previous governments. We can bemoan their negligence, but that isn’t going to solve anything.
Like it or not, it’s up to us to turn things around.
