Dan Walters kidding the municipal mayors for lying about the new sales taxes. But these are regressive taxes on consumption, and the voters generally approve. If the voters are unaware, then we have a governance problem more fundamental than elections. Our voters ut here are not quite that stupid. Even the illiterate know what a sales tax is and they know it is not some 'tax the rich' kind of fantasy.
Coy about taxes and pension costs
One example is in Sacramento, whose mayor, Darrell Steinberg, wants his voters to reauthorize a half-cent sales tax that will soon expire and to add another half-cent. In a recent speech, he called his proposal “a real game changer” that would finance affordable housing, shelters and services for the homeless, job training in low-income communities and small-business incentives.However, simple arithmetic tells us otherwise. The additional half-cent of sales tax would generate less than $40 million a year, city budget documents say, while by the city’s own estimate, its mandatory payments to CalPERS are expected to increase from $81.6 million a year to $129 million by 2023.
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