Look back at history of the last sales tax

Three  years ago, the people of Merced approved a 1/2 cent sales tax to pay for more police and firemen. A lot of that money goes for things other than police or fire protection.

The tax generates almost $4.5 million, but the budget shows over $5.5 million expensed.  Of that, $1,476.220 goes to police salaries and $1,064.517 goes for firemen salaries. Retirement benefits are another $700,000. 

Some of those things are like $37,000 for the City Administrator, over $3,000 for the City Attorney, over $100,000 for the finance department, $18,000 for the City Council and Police and Fire Department administration receives almost a half million.

Our question is wouldn’t these people have been paid the same amount with or without the sales tax?

There is $200,000 set aside for overtime pay and another $100,000 for holiday pay. Overtime is a luxury and most other businesses can not afford it.

We haven’t any idea what a “core allowance” is for, but over $440,000 was set aside for it. Then there is $250,000 for support services. In a two year period the sales tax paid for $234,000 in “vehicle replacement fees in the police department’s budget.” That’s a lot cost for wear and tear on vehicles. In next year’s budget that was dropped to zero. 

All totaled we see over $1 million being used for expenses which would change very little with the addition of a relatively small addition in manpower. Chances are, the city paid for these expenses out of the regular budget before the 1/2 cent sales tax was passed. 

Now we are being told that if more taxes aren’t raised then we will lose many people in these two vital areas of city service.

What we do not hear is about cuts in other departments. There are city departments  which ballooned during the building boom of 2007 and 2008. The city hired four additional building inspectors during the boom. We aren’t building anymore. Are those people still on the city payroll? 

During the good old days, pension plans exploded. Health plans skyrocketed as did other city benefits.

Most private businesses have had to cut benefits, cut salaries, cut staff where ever possible. 

We have heard of cases where public elected officials actually volunteered to cut their own pay. 

We have not heard that coming from the city of Merced. All we are hearing is more taxes.

We know of many business owners who can barely meet their own payroll. They have cut staff, and cut expenses to the bone. When there were no more places to cut, they worked overtime to fill in the gap.

These are not the Wall Street high rollers or the bankers who have caused a lot of this country’s pain. These are the middle class working stiffs who may not be able to afford health care or other benefits. There is no retirement program at the end of their working years. Their business was their retirement and in this day’s market, who is there to take over their business?

We are surprised that the City Council had to pay a consulting firm to tell them whether a vote on higher taxes would pass in Merced. They are all publicly elected officials. Don’t they have a feeling on the pulse of the community?

We feel the pulse of the community  telling us that they will support their city government 110 percent and they have done just that. Our community has also supported our school systems and we have taxed ourselves to provide better schools. 

We have taxed ourselves for better police and fire protection, but when we were asked to pay the tax, we were not told how much of that money was going to other parts of city government.

Let’s start with making sure all the 1/2 cent sales tax money approved three years ago, goes to the police and firemen. Then let’s work backwards and see what kind of cuts need to be made in other city personnel and salaries and pension plans. 
Then and only then should we look at more taxes. And if and when that is necessary, we need to make sure that tax money goes directly for the people and services for which it was intended.