Whip out your wallet, taxes are due April 15

The current environment is particularly ripe with public agencies planning to tap the wallets of their constituents via big ballot measures brewing in bunches this year. What’s on the horizon could be a tidal wave of fresh taxes and other forms of revenue enhancement.

No matter where you look, it’s a drumbeat of increasingly purported fiscal need and dire threats of reduced services — whether BART, Caltrain, your favorite public school district/city or county government, you name it.

There are so many public entities readying new levies it’s tough to keep track of them all. There are lots of reasons offered for what is being presented as what amounts to a regional nightmare:

• Pandemic funds have dried up.

• Public transit ridership never recovered from the pandemic.

• The state is holding back money owed to the county.

• Federal poo-bahs are trimming cash outlays to California.

• Some public school district enrollments are dropping.

• The hyper-wealthy don’t shell out enough in tax proceeds.

• Operating and capital costs just keep rising.

On that final note, it’s worth pointing out that it isn’t just worker wages that rise; so do fringe (and not-so-fringe) benefits. Generally speaking, local taxing agencies see their benefits packages (pension, medical, dental, etc.) approaching about 30% of total employee costs.

In most instances, the authorities never mention the relationship between their own taxes/fees and their effect on inflation and the cost of living here.

They tend to lament a dire “affordability crisis” while at the same time making moves to worsen that very economic condition for residents who must pay the freight.

Tone deaf? You bet. Tighten your purse strings. A tax tsunami is heading our way.

THIS IS THE GOLD STANDARD: As a general rule, the single-family home, sited on an individual lot with a garden, spacious garage and ample backyard on a quiet street, is suburbia’s gold standard.

It’s especially favored by young families who need space to grow and room to thrive. In San Mateo County, more than half of all living units (157,452 of them, or 54% of the total) are in this valued category, according to data provided by county government.

But construction of new single-family dwellings has slowed to a painful crawl. The current preferred option for politicians and developers is multiunit housing — duplexes, triplexes, apartments, condominiums, et al.

Other factors are limiting the supply of available traditional homes as well. Let’s let Chuck Gillooley, a savvy Realtor who specializes in San Carlos and Redwood City properties, provide some perspective.

His blog post recently laid out the situation in the former community in stark terms. He noted that the San Carlos market has seen a steady decline in the number of available homes listed for sale over a two-decade period.

He provided some reasons why. It’s an instructive Peninsula snapshot. Here are some of his findings:

• A longtime homeowner tends to benefit from very low property taxes, courtesy of Proposition 13.

• A home’s low-interest mortgage is an inducement not to sell, move and assume a more expensive loan.

• A sale of a home that has soared in value typically generates significant (and burdensome) capital gains taxes.

It’s also relevant to point out that many older residents, even those living alone (roughly 20% of county households overall, per the 2020 U.S. Census), prefer to remain in their Peninsula homes because they like their communities and neighbors and feel comfortable in familiar surroundings.

All of these factors have a direct bearing on the limited supply of single-family homes available for sale.

RAND McNALLY, COME ON DOWN: We got a surprise geography lesson from ABC World News Tonight last week. It was reported that ICE agents got into a violent, auto-related showdown with a suspect, who was said to be dangerous and in the country illegally, “outside San Jose.” The incident did occur “outside” San Jose. Far outside. It took place in Patterson off Interstate 5 in the Central Valley, 80 miles to the east by car. Rand McNally, come on down.