Posted on 11/05/2008 8:26:33 AM PST by NormsRevenge
If county voters are feeling pinched by stagnant wages and a plummeting economy, it didn't show at the polls Tuesday.
Sales-tax increases and school bond measures appeared headed for victory in communities across the county, with some winning by wide margins.
In addition to choosing a president and deciding a host of divisive statewide issues, voters in the San Diego region were asked to consider 13 separate tax measures to finance all kinds of public services.
The high-profile Proposition A, which would have taxed most property owners $52 a year for enhanced fire protection, was falling short of the two-thirds support it required.
But school districts in San Diego, East County and South Bay were on their way to winning billions of dollars in bonds to pay for renovations and new campuses, and municipal tax measures were faring well in partial returns.
The largest bond proposal by far, the $2.1 billion Proposition S to upgrade San Diego Unified School District campuses, was well ahead of the 55 percent margin it needed to pass. Throughout the campaign, advocates noted that Proposition S would not raise taxes; rather, it extends an existing tax passed in 1998.
A majority of voters in National City were opposing Proposition M, the only measure on Tuesday's ballot that sought to repeal a tax, this one a 1-cent sales tax increase approved two years ago.
Sales-tax measures in El Cajon and La Mesa were both ahead, though El Cajon's was still too close to call early Wednesday.
Officials in that city asked voters to approve a half-cent increase over 20 years to prevent anticipated budget cuts. Their La Mesa counterparts sought a .75 percent sales tax increase over the same period to fund public safety and other programs.
Taxpayer advocates said the sales-tax measures had deserved defeat because elected officials were too quick to boost pension benefits for public employees when revenues were more robust.
“When times were good, the officials awarded excessive benefits that the municipalities simply couldn't afford in the long run,” said Lani Lutar of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. “Now that there's a downturn in the economy, we're seeing the result.”
Besides the $2.1 billion San Diego bond measure, voters approved millions of dollars in new money for school districts in Chula Vista, Lemon Grove and Lakeside. Under Proposition R, Southwestern College will get $389 million.
Bond measures for the Escondido Union High School District and the Grossmont Union High School District in East County were still too close to the required 55 percent threshold to call early Wednesday.
Voters also were kind to two tourism-related tax measures on separate North County ballots.
Del Mar voters agreed to raise the so-called bed tax on hotels rooms to 13 percent. In Encinitas, a measure to extend a 2 percent hotel and motel tax to vacation rentals was ahead of the two-thirds margin it needed to pass.
Taxing our way to prosperity ... cough, cough, laugh, laugh.
Remember!....It’s your patriotic duty to pay higher taxes!
Califorski will become “BAJA RUSSIA” very soon.
NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION!
“Spreadin’ the wealth around is good for all of us.” — Barack Obama
Oh, it’s going to all be ok.... The Messiah will bail CA out!
That’s because the stupid voters think bonds=free money.
Califorski has become “BAJA RUSSIA”
My wife and I (Canadians) used to spend 3 weeks in Oceanside every year...we were there last May and the first thing we got hit with was new taxes at the car rental place.
As most car rentals are used by tourists like us we deduced that we were about to be taken to the cleaners. Sure enough everywhere we went there was increased tourism taxes from the hotels right down to the parking lots.
The topper was when we read that one of the beaches along the coast was going to charge tourist tax on the sand...this was because a couple of years ago they had a storm which blew half the beach away...the idea was to tax the tourists so they could ship in loads of sand to replace the beach.
Now they are going to have to replace two of their taxable tourists because we won’t be going there again.
It's all clear to me now: I am the unAmerican. My city, my state, my country left me.
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