If the City Council got their way this year, Lafayette would have the highest sales tax in the Bay Area, perhaps as high as 9.25% (their taxpayer-funded consultants focused on this number). Organized opposition has forced the Council to drop the sales tax from this year’s ballot, but unless our budget is managed responsibly, we can expect another sales tax push soon, according to the Council. This is outrageous. With rising inflation, skyrocketing fuel prices, foreclosures and the steady increase of food prices, this regressive tax would create an unreasonable increase in the cost of living for Lafayette’s residents, depress business, change the face of Lafayette and raise money in an inefficient way. The money could be spent for any project and when that is found not to be enough, the Council may ask for a new tax. Read the other pages for better solutions to fiscal management, but first let me outline why this tax is such a bad idea:
- The Tax Hurts Our Most Vulnerable. Many of Lafayette’s residents can afford a higher cost of living, but a large portion cannot. Young families who would like to buy a home will be discouraged; seniors on fixed incomes may have to find new living arrangements and independent retailers who are already squeezed in this recession will now find it harder to stay above water.
- The Tax Would Depress Business. We would be known for our highest-in-the-Bay tax rate. This would cost us some of the precious few consumers who come in from outside of Lafayette. Worse, consumers of big ticket items would go elsewhere to buy. Overall, with costs increasing, those without much expendable income would be able to buy less, not only hurting themselves but also our local businesses, especially the independent retailers that give Lafayette its charm.
- The Tax Could Irreparably Change Lafayette. A high cost of living puts home ownership further out of the reach of potential home buyers. This could cause a shift in Lafayette away from neighborhoods of single-family homes. Mom and pops businesses that have to fold would either lie empty or, eventually, be replaced by corporations that have the capital to move their chains in. I did not move to Lafayette because I hoped it would become just another anonymous suburb of chain retailers and high-rise apartment buildings.
- By Hurting Business, the Tax Hurts Revenues. An extraordinarily high sales tax, by encouraging consumers to go elsewhere and by causing businesses to fold soon loses a substantial portion of the amount of money it was meant to raise in the first place, making it an inefficient way to raise funds. If the tax keeps property values down, city revenue is further reduced.
- The Tax Can Be Spent However The Council Wishes and More Could Come. This tax is not earmarked for any specific services. Revenues will go to the General Fund. Even if this Council breaks tradition and spends the money responsibly, the next Council may not. When the budget is, yet again, found to have not kept up with the number and size of unnecessary projects, a new tax hike will be proposed.
The Council is perpetually uncertain as to how much of a sales tax increase the City will tolerate. That is why they pay $75,000 to consultants to try and make it palatable. What they are open about, however, is that they will not stop trying to push more new taxes. Clearly they value their discretionary funds more than they value our discretionary funds, even when yours are drying up in today’s economy.
Join the Campaign for a Fiscally Responsible Lafayette. Vote for Froymovich. Vote for Change You Can Spend.
