Now that voters flatly rejected sales tax hike, what lies
ahead?
Gilroy – The refusal of Santa Clara County voters this week to accept a new half-cent sales tax has left county and nonprofit leaders warning of “devastating” cuts for basic human services such as drug treatment, housing assistance and mental health programs.
“I really am so overwhelmed with the implications of this,” said Erin O’Brien, president of nonprofit Community Solutions in Morgan Hill and treasurer of the campaign in support of Measure A.
On Tuesday, 57 percent of voters rejected a new tax intended to shore up a $165 million county deficit and support health, human services and transportation needs.
Community Solutions is a South County group that helps battered women, foster children, elderly with mental illnesses and countless others. Eighty percent of the agency’s budget comes from government support, the vast majority of it from the county. O’Brien worries the agency could lose funding while facing greater demands as government officials begin hacking employees and programs out of the county budget.
“Say you eliminate your drug and alcohol program,” O’Brien said. “Then what happens? Your jails fill up. You get more crime. All of the human services the county is charged with providing are so interwoven. How do you say that you’re not going to help people with substance abuse addictions?”
County leaders who hit the campaign trail hard in support of Measure A must now set about the business of making such decisions. Officials forecast a $164.6-million deficit on a $3.1-billion operating budget in the fiscal year beginning in July. They plan to bridge that gap by cutting $27.5 million from the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s operating budget, and siphoning off $77 million of its reserves. Smaller cuts and “one-time” funds – such as court settlements or unexpected tax revenues – will make up the remaining difference between county revenues and spending.
The real pain won’t begin until 2008, according to County Executive Pete Kutras.
“The board (of supervisors) is not going to have many choices,” he said. “They’re going to have to make these reductions. Right now there is not any easy cut to make. Everyone will defend a program and say, ‘This is essential – it can’t be cut.’ … Should it be drug and alcohol? Should it be mental health? How do you decide that? Which department should go?”
Kutras plans to offer a list of recommended cuts to county supervisors by early September.
Though the county’s $3.1 billion operating budget has been slashed by $800 million – or one third – in recent years, some opponents of Measure A believe there is plenty of fat left to trim.
“I see mass transportation as a huge waste of money,” said Mark Zappa, a prominent South County Republican and anti-tax crusader. “For whatever reason, mass transit is not convenient for most people. I say that’s what you need to cut – the big money on transportation that is not being utilized.”
Zappa and many other South County residents viewed Measure A with a suspicious eye. On the campaign trail, they blasted the proposal as a backdoor way to fund a $4 billion extension of BART to San Jose. The county originally planned for a quarter cent tax but doubled the figure after reports began circulating that a second, stand-alone quarter-cent tax faced certain defeat. The latter tax was initially put forth by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business consortium determined to extend BART.
Bob Brownstein, the SVLG spokesman on Measure A, could not be reached Wednesday evening for comment on whether the group would revive its push for a quarter cent tax in November. As a stand-alone measure, the tax would require approval by two thirds of voters.
While the defeat of Measure A clouds the fate of BART, county leaders are now more focused on the potential affect on other areas.
“I got my marching orders. The voters have spoken,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage. “There will be cuts and they’ll be big.”
Gage said he preferred to see entire departments eliminated rather than across-the-board cuts that could cripple a wider range of programs. He cited drug and alcohol treatment and mental health services as potential targets. But he dismissed arguments that bus and other mass transit should be eliminated, arguing that some baseline service must remain so people can reach jobs and hospitals.
“I think that people just didn’t want to pay more money out,” Gage said of Measure A’s defeat. “The people that vote are generally the ones that don’t get touched by the services. So it’s kind of like ‘Okay, I’m not going to worry about the homeless, housing, health care.’ ”
He added that he would not push for a quarter cent tax measure in November – an option supported by many South County voters who were skeptical of Measure A.
Members of the South County Collaborative, a consortium of human service providers, plan to explore ways to combine administrative, volunteer and other resources, according to chairwoman Dina Campeau. Collaborative members toyed with such ideas in the past, she said, but those discussions will be held in earnest as major cuts loom.
“We’re not sure exactly what the fallout is going to be,” Campeau said. “But we know it’s going to be hard.”
