What's this about?
We don't have to tell you that the cost of EVERYTHING has gone up. At home you have to cut expenses and prioritize what you need versus what you want.
Well, Yuba City thinks it's a good time to reach into your pocket now.
This is a 1 percent increase on our local sales tax. Purchases made within the Yuba City - City Limits will be taxed an additional 1%.
Things like: hot food, fizzy drinks, shoes, tires, school supplies, laundry soap, dog food, seeds for your garden, hearing aids, beer, bottled water, gasoline, skateboards, farm equipment, propane tank refills, dentures, cars (if you live in the city limits), super low-fat blended mocha drinks with extra caffeine, life preservers, kites, ice cream at Brocks, car washes, hair brushes, pokemon cards. It does exclude prescription medication and most food at grocery stores.
You'll hear about how they need the money for road maintenance, police, fire, all the things we want, but what you won't hear is that it can go to salary increases and pensions, heck - it's called a general tax so it could even purchase Lamborghini's for the police officers.
No limits.
You'll hear them say - just trust us, but at the same time they added a little lipstick on the pig for you skeptics - a Citizen's Oversight Committee. Those lucky people get to read the city's financial audit and try to make sense of the spending. Then they get to write a report about what they read. Problem is - the money has already been spent, the next year's budget has already been passed and the money is gone forever. They really need to call it a Citizen's After-Sight Committee. No recourse for misspending our tax money. Nothing.
You'll hear them say - we are preparing a Tax-Sharing Agreement with Sutter County, but they can only use the funds for the Sheriff and District Attorney (to get their support - we're not stupid) but they can't use it for Sutter County Fire. That's odd, isn't this a general sales tax, how can they dictate spending? Is that even legal? And.... if Sutter County doesn't follow the dictate, Yuba City has said they can cancel that agreement and just keep all of the funds. That's neat.
We've already heard that the City Council wants to take out bonds and run up the city debt for special projects (but this isn't a special tax - right?) like maybe a fire station, maybe some road repairs ($150 MILLION) and who knows what because you have no say in how they spend GENERAL FUND SALES TAXES.
One city councilmember said, "we can take out bonds without voter approval", that takes some testicular fortitude. Bonds are VERY EXPENSIVE loans, half of our tax money will go to pay Wall Street, Bond Financing outfits and Interest, lots and lots of interest.
Have you ever wondered why Yuba City has over $3 million sitting in a road repair fund and our roads are deteriorating right before our eyes? Almost like some sneaky free advertising for crappy roads.