Nearly every city in the Bay Area is asking voters for cash in hopes of staunching their hemorrhaging budgets. From San Jose to Santa Rosa, ballots are rife with parcel taxes, sales taxes, hotel taxes, marijuana taxes, utility taxes, special taxes and vehicle registration fees.
"We have nothing else to fall back on," said Half Moon Bay Mayor Marina Fraser. "The county has its own issues. The state, well, we can't turn to them. We're really on our own. This is it."
Three years into the recession, cities have slashed libraries, senior centers, after-school programs, planning departments, salaries and countless other services once considered essential parts of modern urban life. Vallejo closed three of eight fire stations. San Leandro canceled its century-old Cherry Festival. San Carlos scrapped its police department.
"People like their services, but so far they haven't been willing to pay for them. In a few years, all we'll have left is police and fire," said Carolyn Knudtson, San Leandro recreation director. "We're losing all the things that make this a great place to live, that make it a community."
Voters, already hammered by the stagnant economy and a seemingly endless string of fee increases and state taxes, might not be feeling very generous.
"People who are out of work or uneasy about the future are not very warm to the government needing more money. They see it as an effort to insulate government workers from the same economic realities that have ravaged the rest of us," said Kris Vosburg, director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
"The fact is, the government is taking in less because we're taking in less," he said. "In all honesty, people would really like to see a tax cut."
Dave Cresson, who owns a shopping center and art gallery in Half Moon Bay, said he understands why his city is asking for a 1-cent sales tax increase, to bring the city's sales tax to 10.25 percent, the highest allowed by the state. But he thinks it will do more harm than good.
"If Half Moon Bay gets a reputation for having the highest sales tax in Northern California, that can't possibly be good for business," he said. "It's perfectly easy for consumers to go just a little way to avoid that."
Half Moon Bay is among the region's most destitute cities, after losing a lawsuit filed by a developer a few years ago and experiencing a drastic drop-off in tourism. The beach town of 13,000 has seen its revenue drop by 55 percent over the past few years, leading to a 50 percent cut in its Recreation Services Department, 20 percent in the Police Department and 19 lost jobs at City Hall.
The city has already contracted out engineering, code enforcement and building inspection, and if the sales tax fails, police and planning are likely to be contracted out as well, said administrative officer Laura Snideman.
"People say the city needs to cut. Well, OK, we have cut," she said. "If this doesn't pass, the city could see some very dramatic changes."
San Leandro
San Leandro isn't faring much better. The city is asking for a quarter-cent increase in its sales tax, boosting it to 10 percent, to fill a $3 million budget shortfall.
The city already slashed 15 percent, or $12 million, from its general fund. The Cherry Festival, holiday tree-lighting ceremony, Martin Luther King festivities and Cinco de Mayo party have all been canceled. The city also closed a pool, all adult sports and the entire teen program.
Fire, landscaping and janitorial services have already been contracted out.
"We're down to a pretty thin workforce right now," said City Manager Steve Hollister. "All this tax does is help us maintain what we have now. It won't bring back what we've already lost."
Elsewhere
Nearly every city in Marin is asking voters to approve a special tax for paramedics, and school districts throughout the Bay Area are turning to voters for a bailout.
San Francisco wants to raise its hotel tax to 16 percent, among the highest in California.
Albany has placed three taxes on the ballot, even though the city is weathering the recession relatively well. Voters will decide on a marijuana tax, utility tax and special tax for paramedics.
"We're managing at the moment," said Assistant City Manager Judy Lieberman. "But like cities everywhere, Albany is tight."
E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.
For more election-related news and information, visit our California Elections 2010 page.
This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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