Transportation Sales Tax
County of Santa Barbara
Vote NO on D-2006.

Newspress Opinion: HOLES IN THE ROAD

Santa Barbara News-Press / Ampersand Publishing, LLC
Andy Caldwell ………….September 24, 2006 7:19 AM

Local politicians are doing their best to prissy up Measure D2006, which would raise our local sales tax to 8 cents on every dollar — one of the highest sales taxes in the state and nation. The proposed expenditure plan is poorly thought out and was the result of horse trading for pet projects, not the greatest common good. Hopefully, voters will look past the lipstick and see the porker for what it is — a ballot measure that costs too much and delivers too little.

Back in 1989, voters volunteered to increase the local sales tax by one-half percent for 20 years. This half-percent sales tax is estimated to raise $500 million before it sunsets in the year 2010. Our communities, for the most part, made good use of the money for the purposes it was intended — namely, local street maintenance and regional highway and freeway improvement projects in our county. Ninety percent of the money raised by the special tax went to projects that served transportation by automobile.

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Transportation Sales Tax
County of Santa Barbara
Vote NO on D-2006.

Irresponsible members of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) want to RAISE YOUR TAXES to fund over a HALF BILLION DOLLARS of wasteful pet projects that won’t relieve traffic congestion. This is the same group that raised your taxes 16 years ago and broke their promise to widen U.S. Highway 101.

SBCAG should lobby state and federal officials for our fair share of transportation dollars instead of raiding your wallet. The sales tax in our county, currently 7.75%, is already higher than in neighboring counties (Ventura 7.25%, S.L.O. 7.25%) Raising the tax to 8% would give consumers even greater incentive to shop outside our county.

We have three more years to renew a transportation tax that respects your hard-earned money and guarantees widening of 101 without the pork-barrel give-aways. This current attempt to “renew” Measure D gets an F.

Please join us in saying NO to HIGHER TAXES.

More Info Measure D2006

Vote NO on D-2006.

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