{"id":9182,"date":"2009-06-22T23:56:27","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T23:56:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-06-22T23:56:27","modified_gmt":"2009-06-22T23:56:27","slug":"the-tax-revolt-continues-in-southern-californianot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/06\/22\/the-tax-revolt-continues-in-southern-californianot\/","title":{"rendered":"The tax revolt continues in Southern California…not."},"content":{"rendered":"

David Dayen made the point<\/a> in the aftermath of the May 19th special election that even in conservative Palmdale, an occupancy tax passed with an overwhelming 64% of the vote.  Dave Johnson of Speak Out California made a similar case:<\/a> In the May 19 special, only 31% of Los Angeles County voters supported measure 1A, whereas 68% supported Measure R in November of 2008, surpassing the 2\/3rds threshold required.  Measure R imposed an additional 1\/2 percent sales tax to fund much-need transportation projects in the County.<\/p>\n

What’s the bottom line behind all this, of course?  That the May 19 special was not a tax revolt<\/b> and that people will actually vote to raise revenues for services–a fact which makes the acquiescence of our Democratic leadership to the “tax revolt” frame distinctly unhelpful.<\/p>\n

And now, even more evidence is coming in of the utter lack of a tax revolt mentality in the California electorate.  This month, Los Angeles County has a series of parcel tax measures to help fund various school districts.  Last Tuesday was the turn of the Pasadena Unified School District.  And the results?<\/p>\n

With a turnout of nearly 41%, the voters of South Pasadena decided they actually want a functioning school system<\/a> and passed the measure, 67.6% to 32.4%.  This tax increase is not a negligible amount of money: a surcharge per individual parcel of $288<\/a> per individual parcel and $95 per unit in multi-unit parcels for four years.  And it passed by more than 2-1. Again, this would be a landslide in most elections, but since this type of thing requires a 2\/3rds vote in the State of California, this type of statement that indicates the clear will of the electorate is actually a squeaker.  Let me repeat, though: Voters in South Pasadena voted to give themselves a tax increase of over $1000 over four years in many cases to have decent public schools for their children.<\/p>\n

There are other parcel tax measures coming up: tomorrow, voters in the Palos Verdes Peninsula USD will vote on whether to impose on themselves a $165 tax<\/a> every year for four years.  Next Tuesday, voters in the La Canada USD and the Rowland USD will get the chance to weigh in.<\/p>\n

And if these results go the way of South Pasadena, it will only serve to strengthen the previously existing evidence that Californians are willing to pay for government services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Dayen made the point<\/a> in the aftermath of the May 19th special election that even in conservative Palmdale, an occupancy tax passed with an overwhelming 64% of the vote.  Dave Johnson of Speak Out California made a similar case:<\/a> In the May 19 special, only 31% of Los Angeles County voters supported measure 1A, whereas 68% supported Measure R in November of 2008, surpassing the 2\/3rds threshold required.  Measure R imposed an additional 1\/2 percent sales tax to fund much-need transportation projects in the County.<\/p>\n

What’s the bottom line behind all this, of course?  That the May 19 special was not a tax revolt<\/b> and that people will actually vote to raise revenues for services–a fact which makes the acquiescence of our Democratic leadership to the “tax revolt” frame distinctly unhelpful.<\/p>\n

And now, even more evidence is coming in of the utter lack of a tax revolt mentality in the California electorate.  This month, Los Angeles County has a series of parcel tax measures to help fund various school districts.  Last Tuesday was the turn of the Pasadena Unified School District.  And the results?<\/p>\n

With a turnout of nearly 41%, the voters of South Pasadena decided they actually want a functioning school system<\/a> and passed the measure, 67.6% to 32.4%.  This tax increase is not a negligible amount of money: a surcharge per individual parcel of $288<\/a> per individual parcel and $95 per unit in multi-unit parcels for four years.  And it passed by more than 2-1. Again, this would be a landslide in most elections, but since this type of thing requires a 2\/3rds vote in the State of California, this type of statement that indicates the clear will of the electorate is actually a squeaker.  Let me repeat, though: Voters in South Pasadena voted to give themselves a tax increase of over $1000 over four years in many cases to have decent public schools for their children.<\/p>\n

There are other parcel tax measures coming up: tomorrow, voters in the Palos Verdes Peninsula USD will vote on whether to impose on themselves a $165 tax<\/a> every year for four years.  Next Tuesday, voters in the La Canada USD and the Rowland USD will get the chance to weigh in.<\/p>\n

And if these results go the way of South Pasadena, it will only serve to strengthen the previously existing evidence that Californians are willing to pay for government services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2o6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}