HomeMy WebLinkAboutARATA, MIKE 071420
FOR THE GOOD OF THE TOWN — PUBLIC COMMENT BY MIKE ARATA, 07-14-20:
Addressing Need To Place the Town Manager’s Unilateral SB1349 Endorsement on Agenda
As I said in an explanatory June 23 e-mail and again in detailed public comments on July 7, Town
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Council should rescind Town Manager Calabrigo’s unilateral endorsement of State Senate Bill 1349
That double-speak, gut-and-amend legislation passed the Senate on June 11, and is now under
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consideration by the Assembly’s Committee on Local Government
Since resumption of the Assembly’s current session has been delayed until at least July 27, there
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remains sufficient time for Town Council now, finally, to act responsibly in the SB 1349 matter — ie,
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to refer Mr Calabrigo’s endorsement, and the legislation directly itself, to the Town’s two-member
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Legislative Committee, and thence to Town Council’s committee of the whole
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As you know, Section 72511 of California’s Revenue and Taxation Code, says — in reference to
.“The combined rate of all
local sales- tax add-ons to the State’s own 725% sales-tax rate — that
taxes imposed in accordance with this part in any county may not exceed 2 percent. No tax
shall be considered to be in accordance with this part if, upon its adoption, the combined rate
in the county will exceed 2 percent.”
SB 1349 arbitrarily decrees that statutory limit to be meaningless — saying that our existing minimum
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County-wide 1% local sales tax add-on is not to count against the statutory 2% local cap
Thereby, SB 1349 enables campaigns for new taxes exceeding the cap — including a new half-
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percent tax being readied by County supervisors at this moment, as these comments are read to you
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Again SB1349 is momentous legislation which Mr Calabrigo should not have presumed to endorse
“on behalf of the Town of Danville.”
So I recommend and request once more that the matter of endorsing SB 1349 be placed on Town
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Council’s agenda, now for your July 21 meeting, for public comment, discussion, and a recorded vote
That vote will show which of you, at a time of pandemic-driven financial distress for many, are
nevertheless willing to enable campaigns for sales taxes which are higher still than the already
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exorbitant rates in place now
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As a reminder, meanwhile 56% of Danville voters rejected Measure J just four months ago That
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measure would itself have added half a percent more to existing sales taxes
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In continuing to ignore that election result, in allowing Mr Calabrigo’s unilateral endorsement of SB
1349 to remain on the record without Council consideration and action, you persist also in ignoring
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your own Legislative Framework — along with the express will of the citizens you purport to serve