Read this article and you will see biased reporting. Yes, the article talks about the “need” for a higher sales tax, the fact the city is bankrupt and the pledge the money will go to “public safety”. The real problem is that the money goes to the General Fund, not a Trust Fund (the State has dozens of Trust Funds, almost all have been looted by the Governor to cover his massive deficits—Arnold did the same before him). In 2006 Californians voted for $10 billion to fix the roads. Instead billions were spent giving low interest/no interest loans to big corporations that operate at the Ports, to buy new diesel engines, and put little truck operators, mostly Hispanic, out of business.
As part of the Stockton plan to get out of bankruptcy they will cut payments to corporations, vendors, everybody they own money—except CalPERS—they will be made whole. Yet CalPERS was the final straw that threw Stockton into bankruptcy. You have to know a portion, if not most of the sales tax is going to CalPERS not public safety—nothing in the ballot measure stops that.
Talking taxes in Stockton
By Scott Smith, Stockton Record 9/26/13
STOCKTON - Between ringing up customers at Farmers Feed Co. Inc., a Stockton institution for generations of animal lovers, owner Greg Fleming says he doesn’t worry sales taxes may go up.
He figures that customers pulling in for a sack of goat chow or a batch of pheasant chicks would spend more in gas driving to feed stores in Manteca or Escalon in search of a lower tax rate.
“Yeah, you’re going to have a few yahoos screaming about it,” Fleming said. “I don’t think people are really going to hem and haw being the price went up.”
City leaders want the higher sales tax. They’re asking voters to back them Nov. 5 at the polls. Stockton needs the money to fight crime and exit bankruptcy, they say.
If city leaders get their way, consumers will end up footing the bill.
At Fleming’s Farmers Feed on the corner of Minor Avenue and Airport Way, shoppers spending $100 in ranch supplies pay an additional $8.25 on top of that in sales taxes at the current rate.
Passage of Measure A would boost that tax to $9, a difference of 75 cents. Pocket change, right?
It’s different when you’re elderly and on a fixed income or shopping for big-ticket items, such as new furniture.
“In these hard times, people are always looking for a bargain,” said Lynn Tran, owner of Valley Furniture on Hammer Lane. “Lodi is only 10 or 15 minutes away.”
Lodi shoppers pay 8 percent in sales taxes.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, Measure A has become a tug-of-war between fiscal conservatives, who distrust that government spends money as promised, and city officials under pressure to turn Stockton around.
Shoppers and those selling goods are caught in the middle.
Stockton went broke and filed bankruptcy last year in the throes of a historic homicide spree. City leaders say they’re coming to grips with both. The tax increase plays a key role in a lasting recovery, they say.
Estimates are that the 3/4-cent sales tax called Measure A would generate an additional $28 million each year, a fraction of a cent at a time. With that money, city leaders promise to hire 120 more police officers under the city’s Marshall Plan on Crime, which also includes anti-gang and youth programs.
Another chunk of the new money would go toward Stockton’s debts being hashed out in court, expected to be $11 million even after bankruptcy.
A segment of the community bound to feel the tax increase most are the poor and elderly living on fixed incomes, said Dean Fujimoto, deputy director of the San Joaquin County Human Services Agency.
Sadly, Stockton has its share of poor, he said.
“For the seniors and disabled adults we serve, obviously there’s going to be an impact,” said Fujimoto, whose agency runs Meals on Wheels and a list of programs for disadvantaged. “Yes, it does concern us.”
Even the slightest price jump could force somebody watching every penny to choose between paying the bill to heat their home or buying medicine. Fujimoto hasn’t analyzed the data, but the concerns are real, he said.
Higher earners at the other end of the spectrum fear that they’ll end up paying more in taxes for crime fighting and prevention programs that benefit people in other parts of town.
City Manager Bob Deis, the architect of Stockton’s recovery, told The Record’s editorial board in a recent meeting that he hears this in his Oxford Circle neighborhood just off the Miracle Mile.
He allays their fears, saying that, “Ultimately I think the entire community is going to benefit.”
Councilman Michael Tubbs, who represents poor neighborhoods in South Stockton, said many people he talks with will gladly pay higher taxes if it means officers respond to calls.
“It really provides resources for the whole city but specifically for areas … that need it most, for communities that feel like war zones and would welcome a black and white car once in awhile,” he said.
Tubbs and Councilman Moses Zapien hit the streets one evening last week in the Little John Creek neighborhood, talking with undecided voters about the merits of Measure A.
They approached Hugo Palma, 45, in front of his house on Bayliner Court and handed him a glossy flier. Tubbs explained that tax money would put more officers on the street, fund youth programs and pay Stockton’s way out of bankruptcy.
Zapien, speaking Spanish, told Palma that the measure is critical for Stockton’s future.
“So, can we count on your support?” asked Zapien, returning to English.
Palma, a truck driver and father of five children, said he was in support 100 percent, despite never hearing of the upcoming ballot measure before meeting Tubbs and Zapien.
“If it’s going to be for more officers on the street, I’m OK with it,” said Palma, concerned with Stockton’s reputation as a violent city. “I want to be sure it’s for police.”
Tran, who has owned Valley Furniture for eight years, said as a businesswoman she dislikes the higher tax. But the mother of two college-age daughters said she’s in favor of safer neighborhoods.
Her furniture’s not cheap, and a $1,000 purchase from her showroom would come with $90 in sales taxes under Measure A. At Lodi’s 8 percent tax rate, a short drive north would bring a $10 break.
Auto dealers won’t feel a difference, because a car buyer pays the sales tax rate of where the car is registered, no matter where they buy it, a California Board of Equalization spokesman said.
As for Fleming, a third generation in the livestock feed and supply business, he’s in support. He lives in Manteca and can’t vote on the tax measure, but he works at the Stockton Farmer’s Feed that his grandfather, father and uncle opened in 1941.
He described a recent break-in there by a man who shimmied his way through a hole in the metal Quonset hut to escape. Police caught him a short distance away, and the burglar tried to blame the bleeding cuts around his waist on a drug deal turned bad.
Fleming said he’s willing to back a measure that will cause his customers to pay a bit more to ensure the police come quickly the next time he needs them.
“A tax to help the city of Stockton?” he said. “Yes.”
