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Summary: Since September 2019, CO$T has been researching an 80-year “fiber-optic” agreement signed in April 2015 between SMART and Sonoma based internet service provider Sonic Communications. The project involved a thorough evaluation of public records on SMART’s website (sonomamarin.org) as well as documents obtained from SMART through public records requests.
A new article by Marin IJ columnist, Dick Spotswood examines the array of substantial tax hikes challenging Marin voters in the upcoming election cycle.
“Tamalpais Union High School District is pushing a blockbuster $450 million facilities improvement bond for the 2018 ballot. Its effort will cost homeowners $30 per $100,000 of their property’s assessed valuation, or an annual average of $300 per residential parcel.
Tam’s Board of Trustees is also considering complementing the bond with a 2020 parcel tax for operating expenses.
If that wasn’t enough, Marin County’s transportation agency will likely place a measure on the 2018 ballot continuing its current half-cent sales tax and increasing it by one-quarter cent.
In 2018, Marin along with other Bay Area counties will see Regional Measure 3 seeking approval for a $3-per-vehicle toll increase for travel across all bay toll bridges except the independently run Golden Gate Bridge.
Recall that a toll increase is a tax hike by another name.
Jumping the gun is Larkspur, which is sponsoring a November ballot measure to continue and increase its street-improvement sales tax to three-quarters of a cent. That’ll bring the city’s sales tax rate to 9 percent, nudging against the statewide 9.25 percent sales tax cap.
These collective efforts will kill Marin’s golden goose — the willingness of Marin voters to generously support tax measures which the public believes will lead to community improvements.
Local and regional officials are going too far, too fast.” MORE HERE