Buying the Farm

All sorts of barnyard proverbs and euphemisms could be used to explain the current taxpayers’ dilemma. Not to beat a dead horse, but we’ve repeatedly warned about too many tax increases and bond measures on the next ballot. We don’t want to sound like Chicken Little and claim that the sky is falling, but decades of runaway pension costs are finally coming home to roost. Somebody left the barn door open and all that is left in our taxpayers’ barnyard is a pile of cow pies and horse biscuits.
That pile could be heaped higher this November if voters approve more sales tax increases, $9 billion in state school bonds, extended Prop. 30 income tax increases and various local school bonds.
At the bottom of this stinking pile is almost $1 billion in unfunded county government pension debt that has been mounting at a rate of $300,000 a day since 2000. All other local governments and schools face similar pension deficits under a faltering CalPERS public pension system.
It is far too late to close the barn door. Voters are left with next to no recourse but to vote no on all tax questions. While good arguments can be made to increase the county’s sales tax to support parks and libraries, it is past time to stop adding to the pile of tax liabilities until real action is taken by local and state elected officials.
If local governments and schools did not have such a pension burden, then they would not have to ask voters for higher taxes or new bonds to fix roads and school roofs. County park maintenance and restored library hours would not have to wait for special funding if so much money wasn’t already spent elsewhere.
Last month the Sonoma County Independent Citizen Advisory committee found the county’s pension plan “unsustainable” and in need of a “higher sense of urgency” by the county board of supervisors. It found that over the last decade “$269 million could have been available for road maintenance, social services and public safety, had pension costs been within goals.”
Instead of fully embracing its advisory committee’s findings, the board of supervisors voted to disband the citizen panel. That is not exactly what the panel meant when it called for more “transparency” on the issue.
Now the supervisors want taxpayers to approve two new tax increases in November. A one-eighth percent sales tax increase is being proposed for county parks and voters are also being asked to boost the county’s bed tax on overnight tourists from nine to 12 percent.
Tax laws are more prickly than barnyard management. But that doesn’t mean they don’t both smell like fresh manure.
Our elected officials blame complicated state laws for a lack of action on the huge pension deficit that has led to poor road maintenance and too many workaround special taxes.
Meanwhile, local schools want voters to approve millions in more bond debt. (Healdsburg and Windsor are seeking $60 million-plus each in new bonds and other schools are also asking for millions.)
The reason our barnyard is such a mess is not the taxpayers’ fault, and the stench started long before current school boards and other officials were elected.
Once upon a time (before Prop. 13 in 1979), local property taxes were enough to pay for good roads and school construction. That was before Sacramento started keeping half the money. That was before rich pension plans were promised to our teachers, law enforcement and public employees.
Once upon a time public employees were paid less than private sector employees. That is not true anymore. Nowadays taxpayers must contribute to their own retirement funds and pay over half of the county’s pension costs, too.
Prevailing tax laws and all the talk around the barnyard these days has taxpayers “buying the farm.” And that’s not what it might sound like at first.
— Rollie Atkinson