Vote NO on Measure S – Sales Tax Increase
Proposed Sales Tax Increase Initiative for the November 6th Election
As you may know the Glendale City Council has placed an initiative on the November 6th Ballot to increase City Sales Tax from 9.5% to 10.25%. This tax increase would represent extra $30,000,000 per year that would be going into the City’s General Fund, with no known specific need.
The City’s only reason to promote the tax is to prevent other government agencies from raising taxes and keeping the money, but the fact of the matter is that no County or State Government Agency has taken specific steps to increase the Sales Tax. The City is “acting on a rumor” as a City official stated.
The Glendale Coalition for Better Government has no objection to a tax increase, if in fact that funding is needed, or at least used for the benefit of Glendale citizens and businesses.
According to the City Manager, it would be up to City Council to decide how to use this cash windfall. At this time there is no evidence that the City needs the money or that it will go to necessary services. History tells us, this unnecessary increase in taxes will no doubt go into increased salaries and pensions, pet projects, and feel good projects.
In the past two fiscal years, the General Fund had a surplus of $15,000,000 the first year and $13,400,000 the following year. In both of those years the vast majority of those cash windfalls (over 85%) went into Salaries and Pensions. A lot of money has also gone into pet projects: Six years ago, the City Council authorized spending one million dollars for a consulting firm to create a “Glendale Image” that resulted in a cute tagline: “Your Life. Animated.” that doesn’t appear to have ever been used. In the past few months the Council has been considering spending over one hundred thousand dollars for a “Police Museum” in the Police Department Lobby. Would that be money well spent?
Based on this, the Board of Directors of the Glendale Coalition for Better Government encourages you to vote No on this tax increase initiative. There is no promise or guarantee that the tax money will actually go to benefit the “Quality of Life” as the ballot measure is so cleverly titled! That misleading title alone should cause some questions for you.
The Coalition is asking you to post information related to a No vote on the proposed initiative in your local Nextdoor.com site, use your Facebook page and other social media to post information related to the increase, talk to your neighbors and friends, and network with us to efficiently fight the City’s misleading campaign to take more of our money through unnecessary taxes for unknown needs. It is important that we propagate this information promptly and efficiently.
