As the Nov. 3 election approaches, CST has been a key part of the opposition to Measure P, the 15-year childcare parcel tax. In a Sept. 20 Marin Independent Journal report by Richard Halstead, CST board member Lucy Dilworth laid out the organization’s core objection: “It asks Marin taxpayers to commit to a new tax for 15 years without giving voters enough information to know what they’re buying.”
As Dilworth told the IJ, the measure sets no required split among its three purposes — family assistance, provider wages, and facilities — and leaves income eligibility and performance targets undefined as well.
Measure P is presented as a fix for childcare affordability, but its only defined goal is compensation parity with TK-12 educators — a labor-cost increase, not an affordability mechanism. As Dilworth told the IJ, “higher labor costs do not make childcare cheaper.” She explained that if the cost of employing licensed caregivers rises substantially, ultimately somebody will have to pay, “It could be taxpayers through Measure P, it could be parents through higher tuition, or it could be both.”
The article also reports that proponents have confirmed families outside Marin could also benefit if a commuter parent works in the county, even as the measure’s ballot argument states “every dollar stays in Marin County.” In contrast to these broad benefits, the tax burden falls only on Marin property owners, who, as the official rebuttal puts it, “will pay for it” regardless of where the benefit lands.
Measure P reached the ballot through a citizen initiative using paid signature gatherers, rather than through local-government referral—a distinction with teeth. As the article notes, a similar 2016 child-care sales tax won 63% support but failed to reach the two-thirds threshold required for a special tax. The citizen-initiative route sidesteps that hurdle: Measure P needs only a simple majority to pass.
As Dilworth told the IJ, Measure P fails to meet most of CST’s Sensible Tax Criteria and, generally, its standards for good governance.
Read the full article at the Marin Independent Journal.
CST’s concerns are detailed further in the official Argument Against Measure P and the accompanying Rebuttal to the Argument in Favor, published in the Marin County voter guide.