Senate Bill 63 not really a winner for San Mateo County

Well, they figured out a way to make everything more expensive. OK, but surely they’re talking about a tax on rich tech companies or a parcel tax, right? Oh no, they’ve come up with a massive regressive sales tax, increasing sales tax to 10.375% (Redwood City eg), sending sales tax everywhere above 10% for the first time. Well then, it must be an emergency to help people suffering from food insecurity? Oh no, turns out BART has been throwing money out of a helicopter for decades, and our progressive brain trust has decided it’s time to restuff the helicopter.

The guest perspective felt compelled to use the words hold “accountable” some 10 times, so the one thing you know for sure about this ballot measure — it doesn’t hold BART accountable — for its decadeslong operational malfeasance: thus Papan, Speier and Mueller don’t support it.

Many avoid BART because they perceive it as unsafe. SB 63 makes the BART situation worse. What incentive does BART have to clean up its act if gullible taxpayers keep sending them more money?

Well, at least per Proposition 13, a special transportation tax requires a two-thirds vote so this won’t pass anyway, right? Ah, no. Sacramento legislators (ie local government) wrote the entire ballot measure word for word and are going to call this a citizen’s “petition” and claim it therefore only needs 50% to pass. You didn’t know there was a grassroots, organic movement of the citizenry to raise our sales tax above 10%?

Christopher Keene

Redwood City