Thank goodness for the Sacramento County Taxpayers Association, one of the few local organizations seeing this situation correctly.
Credit must also be given to the one county supervisor, current Chair Roberta MacGlashan, of District Four, who also considers it a possible illegal dodge of the state constitution, and voted against it.
The larger narrative that is troubling is that the care of major county resources, such as the American River Parkway, is suffering as these diversions, accompanied by bloated retirement packages, new city incorporations primarily due to poor county service, continue to drain the coffers needed for providing service to the entire public, rather than the few who can afford to attend Kings games; rests in these obviously ‘not clear on the concept' (of public service) hands.
An excerpt.
Possibly a legal tangle for Measures Q, R
By Joe Sullivan - Special to The Bee Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, October 12, 2006
After failing to raise private money for a new Sacramento Kings arena, Sacramento city and county officials in May decided to use public money. They proposed increasing the county sales tax a quarter-cent for 10 years, raising $600 million. During planning, officials recognized that Proposition 218 requires a two-thirds vote to pass a "special tax" for the arena. Based on an erroneous legal assumption, they decided to make the tax "general," needing only a majority vote, by dropping references to the arena, coupled to an "advisory vote" asking voters to let them use the money for the arena.
Jonathan Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, advised the Sacramento County Taxpayers League and The Bee that the county counsel's statement that the strategy is legally viable is incorrect. County counsel contended that the state Supreme Court upheld a sales tax increase in Santa Clara County using the same idea in 1998 for transportation improvements. Coupal countered that the Santa Clara tax and Proposition 218 both appeared on the same ballot in November 1996, and because Proposition 218 did not go into effect until the following day, it didn't apply to the Santa Clara County case. The league wrote the county and city in May, stating we agreed with Coupal and believe the city and county's circumventing Proposition 218 violates the law.
The league ended with, "Our advice to you local officials is to follow the law, tell the voters the truth and put the measure on the ballot as a special tax. If successful, with the right mix of private money and a solid plan to make the arena self-supporting, you might have a chance of building an arena and retaining the Kings."
