Opinion: Sales tax to fund Cubberley project won’t pass

BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor

Palo Alto City Council is scheduled tonight (June 8) to decide whether to put a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot to raise money for the renovation of the Cubberley Community Center.

Council will be deciding this just days after learning that voters in the Palo Alto Unified School District rejected an $800-per-parcel tax — the first school tax to go down in this city in 22 years.

People have offered a lot of theories why the school parcel tax failed — that the school board is in chaos, the administration is top-heavy, employees have been mistreated by the administration, the district’s enrollment is declining, and the district is sitting on $100 million in reserves and doesn’t need more money.

There may be some truth in each of those explanations, but I think the actual reason why the parcel tax failed is more simple. People believe their taxes are too high and they want them cut back.

Times are tough, inflation is rampant, mass layoffs are sweeping the valley, and people want to hold on to their money.

The city commissioned a poll in January and found that only 48% of voters supported a Cubberley tax. 

Magical thinking

But rather than dropping this project, council members pushed ahead. At a February meeting, council members exhibited magical thinking in explaining why they felt the tax would pass despite the poll’s results.   

For instance, Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims said the poll was off because it was taken the week ICE shot Minneapolis resident Renee Good. She said the shooting could have negatively affected people’s mood.

At least she didn’t say that Cubberley was off-limits because it was built on stolen land.

Competing tax measures

If council puts this half-cent sales tax on the November ballot, it will likely compete with a half-cent sales tax to bail out BART, San Francisco Muni, AC Transit, Caltrain and other mass-transit agencies. Voters might look at the two taxes — transit and Cubberley — and feel they can only support one of them. It would make sense for Palo Alto to wait for a ballot where it won’t face competition.

Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays.