Ken Garcia's Blog

Holding an election that's no so special

By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
01/27/09 12:56 PM PST

Now that people are losing their jobs in droves, home foreclosures are at a record high and the predictions of economic decline will continue through the rest of the year, don't you think this is a great time to ask people to raise their own taxes?
 
That seems to be the logic of several members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who are scheduled today to vote on a plan to throw out all their rules regarding elections so they can possibly hold a special one in June to ask citizens to consider a host of new taxes to help them with their spending problem.
 
And that's exactly what it is - a spending problem - created by a board that believes no social or health program can be undone. San Francisco spends more per capita on health programs than any city in the country and yet refuses to make cuts necessary when the economy is in the tank. Instead it turns to the local citizenry to ask it once again to tax itself to help the board out of its bind.
 
What taxes we will be asked to raise - who knows - and some board members seem not to care. There is no consensus among labor unions and business owners as to whether there should be any tax hikes, yet the board seems insistent on speeding ahead anyway. (The mayor, who is in negotations with the unions to try and get some salary givebacks, is opposed to a June special election.)
 
One suggestion: Before the board asks voters to raise taxes by a $100 million, make $100 million in cuts to the budget with a promise that the cuts will not be restored. That would at least be a sign that the new board members understand they can't ask voters to do all the work for which the supervisors were elected.
 
Otherwise, let the crusade begin to stop any new taxes without adequate representation.