With 100% of precinct ballots counted, Santa Clara County voters on Nov. 4 overwhelmingly supported adding 0.625% to the county sales tax rate for five years.
As of 10am, the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office reported 200,430 YES votes and 152,850 NO votes, a margin of more than 47,000 votes.
Registrar Matt Moreles said after all the ballots are counted, turnout could exceed 50 percent.
“We are on track for 50-60% voter turnout for this election, which is high for a special election and may even exceed some regularly scheduled statewide elections,” Moreles said. “We take great pride in making voting easy and convenient for our voters and we are pleased to see voters taking advantage of the variety of accessible and convenient voting options available to them.”
Nearly 57% of Santa Clara County voters approved of an increase in local sales taxes that county officials say is necessary to help offset dramatic cuts in federal aid by the Trump Administration, mostly in health care.
The approval of the additional 0.625% in county sales taxes propels half of the county into double-digit territory.
The sales tax increase needed only a simple majority of county voters to be enacted, because it is an unrestricted tax that can be spent for any county government purpose.
County officials said the higher taxes are needed to close a projected billion-dollar budget shortfall they say is the result of the “Big Beautiful Bill” approved by a Republican Congress and signed by President Trump.
The countywide sales tax will increase to 9.75%. The increase will be rolled back in five years.
County Executive James Williams said the county can collect more than $330 million over five years from the five-eighths-cent additional sales tax.
Purchases made in the cities of San Jose and Milpitas, which have city sales taxes as well, will have a 10% tax. Campbell businesses will collect 10.5%, the county’s highest rate. Consumers in Los Gatos will pay 9.875%.
The sales tax adds $187.50 to the price of a $30,000 car, and $1.25 to a $200 non-exempt retail purchase.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved the tax in a special meeting Aug. 7 after Metro Silicon Valley reported that about 30% of the county’s budget is now compromised by cuts to federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid—distributed by the state as Medi-Cal.
CA approves new congressional districts
Two minutes after the polls closed in California, CNN called the Prop 50 race at the starting gate, predicting that voters had approved the change in the state’s Congressional Districts.
As of 10am, the Secretary of State’s website reported that nearly 64% of voters said “yes” to Prop 50.
The victory was a watershed moment for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had proposed and pushed the measure, alone among Democratic governors.
In Santa Clara County, voters approved the redrawing of congressional districts by a 71%-to-29% margin.
The measure will suspend California’s current congressional maps, which were drawn by an independent citizens commission, and replace them through 2030 with districts drawn by Democratic insiders.
The plan will have little impact on South Valley congressional districts.
The latest campaign financing reports for the Proposition 50 campaign showed that $50.4 million was raised to support the ballot measure and $44.3 million was raised in opposition to the congressional redistricting plan. Most of the money raised both for and against today’s ballot measure came from fewer than 20 total contributors.
The top 10 contributors to Yes on 50, Governor Newsom’s Ballot Measure Committee, totaled 95% of the campaign’s money.
Topping the list were two national political action committees, the House Majority Political Action Committee for Prop 50, $16.4 million, and the Fund for Policy Reform, $10 million.
Funds remaining from the governor’s 2022 campaign contributed $2.6 million, and renowned Welsh billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz pitched in $2.5 million. Prominent billionaire philanthropist and Cargill heiress Gwendolyn Sontheim contributed $2 million.
Nearly 75% of the money raised to defeat the redistricting plan was contributed by wealthy atomic physicist Charles Munger Jr., who had donated $32.8 million as of Oct. 23.
Fligor leads for county assessor
Assistant Santa Clara County Assessor Neysa Fligor appeared to be running away in a four-person race to be county assessor, as final ballots were counted Tuesday night.
The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters reported at 10:50pm that Fligor, who also is vice mayor of Los Altos, had 118,661 votes, well ahead of Rishi Kumar, a former Saratoga City Council member and former candidate for Congress, with 75,508 votes, Saratoga Mayor Van Zhao with 63,995 votes, and East Side Union High School District Trustee Bryan Do with 51,569 votes.
The winner of the special election will replace Santa Clara County’s longest serving elected official, Larry Stone, who announced in late June that he would step down 18 months before his term was to expire in 2027.
Stone served in that position for more than 30 years, and previously was the mayor of Sunnyvale. Assistant Assessor Greg Monteverde, a 35-year assessor’s office employee, has served since July as interim assessor.
