SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is proposing to raise the sales tax rate in the county to provide more affordable housing.
The half-cent sales tax will be placed on next year’s ballot and could help raise up to $3 billion, but California taxpayers’ advocates say it’s not the right move for Sacramento.
"I want to start a different conversation here in Sacramento in the city and the county about how we talk to the voters and about how we gain their support for a measure that would bring billions of dollars of new investment for affordable housing,” said Steinberg.
He says it would raise about $9 billion over the next 40 years and would be directly invested into an unprecedented countywide housing trust fund, public transportation and safer streets. About one-third of it would go to affordable housing.
"The City of Sacramento is actually doing quite well with the revenue it has and so if the homelessness and housing is a priority, [then] that's what the city council and Mayor Steinberg needs to do. They simply need to reallocate money to higher priority items and perhaps move down in priority list other things,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
He says there’s no question California has a housing and homeless problem.
"We need to be able to build more affordable and workforce housing. Not only on Stockton Boulevard but in all of our corridors throughout our city and county if we're going to meet that housing obligation and if we are to meet our climate and transit goals,” said Steinberg.
But Coupal says he doesn’t believe the measure has a chance of passing because he feels the citizens of Sacramento already see a lot of waste with the money they’re providing now.
"I think if they do put this on the ballot, then Mayor Steinberg and the city council is going to have the burden of proof of showing that they couldn't find revenue from other sources, so I think that's going to be the challenge for them,” said Coupal.
Friday’s forum was Mayor Steinberg’s last of three in lieu of a traditional State of the City address this year.
