Having been on the ballot twice in less than a year — once in November 2005 when it lost, and again last month when it won — the 1% sales tax increase in National City now has the opposition asking, "Would’ya go two out of three?"
Opponents of the tax are moving ahead on qualifying the rubber match for an upcoming ballot.
Officials in National City say city services will be drastically cut without the tax being at 8.75%, the highest in San Diego County. Opponents of the tax, including even a SD Union Tribune editorial, say if the city hadn’t increased pensions so significantly over the years, it wouldn’t be in this mess.
This in from SD Taxfighters:
The National City Sales Tax Increase Is Going Back on the Ballot
Campaign Theme is “Two out of Three”
San Diego – Last week, initial papers were filed to put the onerous National City sales tax increase back on the ballot for voter consideration. The new initiative will seek to repeal that city’s recently passed Prop D, the full 1% sales tax increase.
Starting this October, National City – the poorest city in the county – will begin collecting a sales tax of 8.75% – the HIGHEST in the county. While National City politicians claim that the money is for “public safety,” in truth the new revenue will fund the lucrative city pension plan that pays ALL retiring 30-year city employees pensions equaling 90% of their highest salary – without the employees paying a dime for their retirement.
To add insult to injury, over 80% of the fat-cat city employees don’t even live in National City. Their lush salaries and opulent pension payouts leave the city’s economy forever.
Randy Myrseth, a National City resident, submitted the initiative paperwork to the City Clerk to start the process. His attorney, Edward Teyssier – a National City businessman (phone 619-474-6432) – received assistance in preparing the documents from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Both men are Libertarian Party activists – Teyssier being the Chair of the San Diego County Libertarian Party.
The battle cry of this new effort is “Two out of Three.” The sales tax increase was soundly rejected in the November, 2005 general election, but the city labor unions told their politician allies to put it right back on the ballot for the June, 2006 primary election. With a far lower voter turnout in June, the measure passed. In this city with 62,000 residents, only 2,300 votes were cast in favor of raising the sales tax.
The June election was held in spite of the fact that the law requires such tax increases to be placed on the ballot in conjunction with the election of city officials. There were no such city races in June. To bypass this restriction, the city council used a loophole to declare an “emergency” when there was none.
Teyssier and Myrseth both strongly feel that this important measure deserves to be reconsidered in a bigger election. Thus the plan is to put this measure before the voters in the November, 2008 presidential election.
Teyssier said that “while it is true that the National City politicians could agree to put our measure before the voters in the November, 2006 general election, these cowards will do everything they can to delay and block our initiative from reaching the ballot. Given that reality, 2008 is a reasonable date for us to shoot for.”
It will take about 500 valid signatures from registered National City voters to put this issue back before the voters. We opponents of the sales tax increase are committed to getting these signatures.
Richard Rider, who along with Teyssier wrote the ballot argument against the June sales tax increase, will also be heavily involved in the new effort. Rider promised that “San Diego Tax Fighters [Rider is the Chair] will seek to provide significant financial support for this effort. In the previous election, the other side outspent us at least 100 to 1. That allowed the labor unions to spread their disinformation without opposition. That won’t be the case in the next election. Not even close.”