Foolish Santa Barbara Taxpayers

By Lou Segal

As everyone knows, April 1^st is known as April Fool’s Day and this year the fools are Santa Barbara voters, who voted to approve an increase in the city sales tax from 8.75% to 9.25%, effective on April 1 of this year.

It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that a majority of voters wanted to increase the cost of almost everything they buy, thus increasing their cost of living in one of the cities that has the highest cost of living in the U.S. Are these the same voters who bellyache constantly on social media about how they can’t afford to live in Santa Barbara and will need to relocate elsewhere? In an act of inexplicable masochism, they voted in a way comparable to cutting one’s own wrist.

The question is why? Do they really believe their lives are going to improve because they raised taxes on themselves? Do they think the city’s services, such as cleaning streets, fixing potholes, or responding to 911 calls are going to improve. Are they that naïve?

I would like to blame the politicians, including everyone on the city council and the mayor (who should know better) for pandering to overpaid and self-serving city workers and their corrupt labor unions at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve. But I really can’t blame them if the voters willfully and knowingly commit an act of self-sabotage. If this were a psychiatric hospital, I would take away their privileges if they did something so silly as to compromise their own safety.

So now I am paying more for the cup of coffee I buy every day at the nearby shop, the restaurant I like to go to, the clothes I buy either at the store or online and myriad other stuff like furniture, toys, giftware, car repairs, haircuts, sporting events, concerts, and hundreds of other things. The list is endless. Also, don’t forget, this increase in the sales tax can make purchasing a car hundreds of dollars more expensive.

The question is: who did this sales tax increase really help? If truth be told, it was proposed because the city is paying double-digit annual increases in pension contributions on behalf of employees to ensure their pensions (which no one in the private sector gets) continue far into the future. Without the sales tax increase, these exploding pension costs would blow a hole in the city budget.

I appreciate our firemen and police as much as anyone, but I’m not sure I favor them being able to retire at age 50 at potentially 60% of their wages for the rest of their lives. This can amount to millions of dollars of benefits they will receive as long as they have a pulse.

I talked to my city councilmember about this, and he assured me this wasn’t his motivation for supporting the sales tax hike. But I found his assurances to ring hollow due to his not be being able to come up with any specific benefits this sales tax increase will confer on me.

We live in a state that has the highest taxes in the country. Our state income and gasoline taxes are at least double what most other states charge. Because our home prices are significantly higher than almost anywhere else in the country, the dollar amount of our property taxes for home buyers are also the highest in the nation. I am also paying for multiple school bonds and parcel taxes, in addition to my property taxes, while test scores and school enrollment keep declining.

I voluntarily choose to live in California and pay these outrageous taxes. I despise the politicians who keep trying to squeeze more blood from overburdened taxpayers, but it’s hard to get too mad at them if the voters are willing to be their guinea pigs. All I ask of my fellow Santa Barbarans, is if you are going to continue to vote to make your life and your neighbors’ lives more difficult, you should consider sitting out the next few elections. This would be a civic duty far greater than voting like someone who is on hallucinogenic drugs.

Take a look at COLAB’s latest video, “The Great Fee Heist”