Santa Barbara city and county voters confront a raft of proposed tax increases and new bond debt schemes on the Nov. 5 ballot, as local governments focus on boosting revenues instead of (the horror, the horror!) trimming expenses.
Conservative columnist, and former SB council member, Dale Francisco returns to Newsmakers TV this week to cast a gimlet eye on this governing strategy, as Callie Fausey digs into the Board of Supervisors' new plan for cutting carbon emissions and Josh Molina reprises his on-the-scene reporting from the Democratic Party's Labor Day gathering of the tribe.
Plus: Amazing but true, some Santa Barbara elementary school kids banish their much-esteemed principal to the roof for a survivalist ordeal.
Among the multiple fiscal measures facing local voters in the general election:
Measure I, a proposed one-half cent sales tax increase within the city of Santa Barbara, which would bring its total to $9.25 per $100, generating about $15 million annually, the better to plug a structural budget deficit estimated this year at $7 million.
Measure H, a proposed increase in unincorporated areas of the Transit Occupancy Tax, aka "bed tax," from 12 to 14 percent per night per room on visitors to about two dozen hotel facilities and several hundred vacation rentals, to raise about $3 million a year for county government.
Measure P, a "bond extension" proposed by the City College Board of Trustees, which would extend for 20 years a current $8.50 per $100,000 property tax levy, first approved in 2008's Measure V, to pay for an assortment of building upgrades and infrastructure improvement.
That's not to mention Buellton's Measure C, Carpinteria's Measure B, or Solvang's Measure E, all of which would accrue more of Other People's Money by dinging tourists via bed tax hikes in the individual cities.
Our Man in Las Vegas sez: Take the over on B, C, E, and H and bet the under on I and P.
And: don't miss Dale's extraordinarily precise forecast of local sea level rise, Callie's "oil and gas-shaped elephant," and Josh's stopwatch reading on Das's....checks notes...one-minute Labor Day screed.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out our new episode via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here. TV Santa Barbara, Channel 17, airs the show at 8 p.m. on weekdays, and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Image: Orange County Register.
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