Hollister – When local voters start receiving their sample ballots later this week, they’ll find a document that’s unusually one-sided.
The “Campaign for Hollister” submitted an argument for Measure T, a sales-tax increase that supporters call crucial for the city’s economic health, but there’s no statement from the other side. There isn’t even an official anti-Measure T campaign – at least none that’s officially registered, said City Clerk Geri Johnson.
But that doesn’t mean Measure T is a big hit. Despite no organized opposition, voters in November 2006 defeated a similar initiative to increase the sales tax – Measure R – by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.
And indications of anti-sales tax sentiment can be seen in letters to the Free Lance and around town – where cardboard, hand-drawn “No-on-T” signs often sit next to the more professional pro-Measure T displays.
“They’re very homemade,” acknowledged Hollister resident Reba Jones, who said her husband Marvin Jones created the signs.
Reba Jones said she and her husband are both against the increase.
“I’m against it simply because it’s going to raise gas prices 3 cents more per gallon.” she said. “When you pay $30 or $40, it adds up.”
Yes-on-T Co-Chairman David Huboi said he’s been talking to plenty of locals about the measure. Once they learn details, people tend to be supportive, he said.
“Last year, one of the problems that we had was that people really didn’t know what Measure R was about,” said Huboi, a local architect and planning commissioner who previously chaired the Yes-on-R campaign.
Huboi said he’s also met people strongly opposed to the measure. Most of them, he said, tend to be residents who “prided themselves on being long-standing members of the community.”
“They’re concerned about accountability because of mistakes made in the past,” he said.
City Councilman Doug Emerson, a spokesman for the Yes-on-T campaign, said he’s aware of those complaints, too.
“The concern I hear is that the public wants some assurance that those moneys are going to be well spent,” Emerson said. “The public doesn’t really trust government and elected officials.”
But when opponents start asking about accountability, Yes-on-T advocates often point to the tax increase’s five-year sunset and the citizen’s oversight committee to monitor spending. Huboi said the measure is “the only feasible solution” to the city’s financial woes.
“We can’t keep living in the past,” he said. “We have the future to think about.”
Emerson said he was surprised when no one organized a campaign against the tax increase last year. This year, he said he was expecting it and he also noted that San Benito County isn’t home to any taxpayer advocacy groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
For her part, Reba Jones said she and her husband are too busy to pull together a full-fledged campaign.
“We’ve got so much going on … with so many other things,” she said. “We just hope that as time goes on, more people are going to, so to speak, see the light.”
