BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
San Mateo County is polling residents about a potential half-cent sales tax on the November ballot that would raise $114 million a year for childcare.
The tax would be used to lower costs for low- and middle-income families and to grow the childcare workforce, according to the poll by McGuire Research.
Supervisors Jackie Speier and Lisa Gauthier hosted four town halls throughout San Mateo County last fall to hear from parents and providers about childcare.
The supervisors wouldn’t talk about the tax last week until the polling is done.
“Right now, there are several important needs facing our community, including housing, transportation and childcare, and it’s important we hear directly from residents about what matters most to them,” Supervisor Noelia Corzo said in a statement. “We encourage people to share their perspectives by completing the survey.”
The sales tax increase would bring the tax rate above 10% in most San Mateo County cities, including Belmont, East Palo Alto and Redwood City.
The lowest tax rate would be 9.875% in cities such as San Carlos and Menlo Park.
At the same time, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is pursuing another half-cent sales tax to bail out Bay Area transit agencies like Caltrain and BART.
The poll on childcare offers several arguments for and against a new tax.
For example, “People who have children should take care of them and not expect others to pay their bills” is one argument against.
Other arguments against the tax refer to the increased cost of living, already high taxes and creating another wasteful countywide bureaucracy.
One argument for the tax is that an inefficient childcare system has resulted in San Mateo County losing $775 million in economic productivity.
“Families are trapped in a system where long wait lists, unaffordable costs and a severe shortage of care options have become the norm,” the poll’s script says.
Good luck with that. Soon the only people left in California are going to be those receiving “benefits” from the government.
Throwing more money at the problem will not result in a fix, only create more problems.
Interesting: “the only people left will be those receiving government benefits”
So are you expecting our primary economic engine of tech to leave Silicon Valley along with its hundreds of thousands of employees?
What ever happened to the idea that you shouldn’t have children if you can’t take care of them? People are reproducing recklessly. Birth control is readily available.
The government’s craving for more taxes is insatiable. Live within your means.
Since when do we pick one group of people within the community to get special support when they created their own situation? The article mentions loss of productivity as a justification, that is not something that helps the community in general, so who benefits? Every segment of our community needs help, so unless a sales taxes benefits everyone, it’s not the way to help one particular group. Fix the roads, do something that makes life better for everyone, but I cannot support this plan.
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No more taxes.
Sick of this.
We have no more money left!
Fraud anyone?
This state will soon be more takers than makers. The makers are leaving.
This county won’t get my money for this crap. It’s not the government’s job to pay for childcare.
How many makers—e.g. Tech workers—are leaving Silicon Valley? I haven’t noticed a big exodus.
In fact, with the current AI boom, new tech people are coming to the Bay Area, not leaving it.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it’s helpful if their opinion is grounded in facts.
These elected officials have no concept of where money comes from. Complete lunacy to tax, tax, and more tax. Why is California so expensive? Because we have non-thinking imbeciles supposedly managing our money for us. Please remember who these people are in any future election.
If passed, would this new childcare tax revenue go wholly into a dedicated fund to pay for childcare and not be diverted to other purposes?
Any way to enforce the childcare tax revenue be used only for that purpose?
Or would the revenue mostly, or wholly, go into the County’s general fund or be diverted to police departments?
All for it. If low and middle income people continue to be driven out of our communities, we’re going to have a very expensive “scarcity of services” that will make this additional tax look cheap.