Time for a tantrum

What the county’s Board of Supervisors hoped would be a sleepy little single-issue election on June 2 for the Measure A county sales tax increase is turning out to be anything but.
The supervisors wanted the voters to buy the lie that Measure A was a “road tax” to fix potholes instead of feeding their general fund to spend any way they choose — including on pensions, salaries or other non-road programs.
It looks like the voters aren’t biting. The supervisors are asking the voters to “just trust us” to spend the money on fixing roads, but the voters seem to be saying “Not this time; enough is enough.”
For decades now, all of our local and countywide elections have been dominated by a tight circle of political puppeteers, labor union and pro-development bosses and a self-appointed environmental elite. Average, unaffiliated citizens have been marginalized.
It is definitely time to change the dialogue. Sonoma County’s 260,000 registered voters don’t deserve to be talked to like children. They aren’t merely poll numbers or robo-call recipients. They are individual workers, families and local business owners. The loud backlash against Measure A is saying, “Don’t take us for granted anymore.”
If the political and powerful elite insist on talking down to voters like small children, then maybe voters should throw a tantrum.
Vote “no” on Measure A. The county’s economy is growing and pumping out higher tax revenues. We don’t need a sales tax increase to fix our roads; we need better budget management at the top of our county and local governments. Fix the huge pension deficit first, and fixing our roads will be easy.
Measure A is a proposal filled with conceit as well as deceit. The slick mailers supporting Measure A are full of pandering and promises only little babies might believe. In one place, the literature promises that this sales tax increase will “protect our environment.” Really? Are we supposed to believe in the Tooth Fairy, too?
Wary taxpayers and voters have heard these promises before. We were duped into supporting the SMART train that was supposed to be running by now and going all the way to Cloverdale. Co-opted environmentalists and others were told the plan included a new county-length bicycle/pedestrian route. How much longer will that promise take to come true?
Pollsters behind Measure A told the supervisors a legitimate special road tax would not win because it would require a two-thirds majority vote. So, the supervisors and their political enablers chose the “deceit and conceit” route instead. They promised the taxpayers’ money to the North Coast Builders Exchange, North Bay Labor Council, Sonoma County Conservation Action and the Save Our Sonoma Roads group. In exchange, all these groups have pledged to “hold elected officials accountable” to assure the new taxes go to them instead of elsewhere.
What a deal. Who needs these groups’ promises when it is up to individual taxpayers to demand accountability, transparency and truth-telling?
The campaign for Measure A is too reminiscent of recent supervisor elections, like the Gore-Fudge race last year that fetched $1.3 million in puppeteer consultant fees, slick mailings, anonymous PAC attacks and everything but straight talk, adult-to-adult.
If this dialogue from elected officials and their enablers doesn’t change, what can we expect in next year’s race in west county for Supervisor Efren Carrillo’s seat?
A resounding defeat of Measure A will get the attention of all elected officials across Sonoma County. Maybe the officials worthy of getting elected will start listening to voters and taxpayers instead of reading polls or counting campaign contributions.
Even small children know when they’re promised a toy just to buy complacency and silence.
— Rollie Atkinson