Thoughts on Supporting Measure Q
We’ll vote on Measure Q, a renewal of an existing half-cent sales tax, next week.
I understand the concerns I hear from some people in Davis. City councils in the past have made several bad decisions about personnel contracts (both wages and benefits) and I think we have some lingering imbalances in the budget (long-term infrastructure maintenance issues for instance). That said, the last couple of budgets, the only two I’ve taken the chance to look at carefully, have included an important start on setting aside funds for long-term benefit obligations… and they have made real steps toward reorganizing the bureaucracy.
As a member of the Finance and Budget Commission (let me emphasize that I do not write here representing the commission in any way) I have had more time than most to look at the budget. Cutting the sales tax out will have a limited impact on next year’s budget (because of the lag), and we may see some recovery of taxes in 11-12… but I wouldn’t bet on a rosy picture. So here is where the argument lies: honestly, I don’t see places where major cuts could be made in the budget without affecting services in significant ways. Not renewing the tax would be very likely to make a major problem for our city services and so I strongly support the renewal.
In the medium term, not the long run, I’d like to see the city move toward outcomes based budgeting (whatever the label folks want to use), so we can see what services the city actually provides and why we have the budget we have. That will help us talk about financing the city we want. The conversation is too abstract as it stands.
I’m impressed, though, with how efficient we are given the revenues we have—check out the per capita revenues and you’ll see that we have much less money to work with than do other cities around us, and yet I’d say we have some superior city services… and that is crucial to our quality of life (and to our home values).
I have a limited perspective: I don’t have a business in town; my interactions with the city have generally come because the college needed some small help or advice. I’ve been pretty happy with the experiences I’ve had as a property owner. All that colors my opinions. I expect people in town have much more experience as long term business owners and property owners… I’ll continue to listen to their views with real interest.
When I vote on Tuesday, though, I’ll vote for the tax renewal. I don’t want to hobble the city or the next city council in this very tough economic environment.
Certainly if you look at the wide range of services in Davis, you could make the point that many other cities in California make do with a lower level of service. If you think that the extra services afforded by the sales tax aren’t worth it, then you could reasonably be against the sales tax on that basis. My feeling is that city services generally are worthwhile and that the half percent sales tax is not any huge imposition, but reasonable people could disagree at least about the first half of that.
But the idea of opposing the sales tax to punish the city for the sins of mismanagement is very foolish. Many California cities have been blindsided by CalPERS, not because of decisions made a few years ago, but because of decisions a full decade back. And, in some of the arguments that people have made about city finances, they haven’t even adjusted for inflation. Second-guessing CalPERS is sometimes possible, but it isn’t as easy as it looks. Escaping from monetary inflation is of course not possible at all.
So some of the argument against the sales amounts to punishing the city for bearing bad news, rather than for any bad decisions made recently. In any case the concept of tax cuts as retribution against bad government is generally questionable. Either city services are worth what they cost, or they aren’t.