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Measure AA - SF Bay $12 Parcel Tax
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Election Date: June 7, 2016
Argument Against
San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority: Measure AA
Don’t be fooled by the title of this measure.
This measure is about the transfer of our money to a special interest group that most of us have never heard of: The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority.
Most of the funds raised by this tax will enable a massive new and burdensome bureaucracy, with high paying salaries and fat pension plans.
And like all bureaucracies, they will never accomplish their stated goal: the restoration of the San Francisco Bay wetlands.
They will, however, work in fancy office buildings, travel around on generous per diem expense accounts, enjoy expensive “business meeting” luncheons and dinners, and otherwise spend every last cent this parcel tax acquires straight out of our family budgets.
And when that isn’t enough, they’ll come back to us taxpayers for more.
They always do.
If they were truly concerned about restoring the San Francisco Bay wetlands, there are many existing federal, state, and local funds that can be utilized without creating a whole new, bloated and expensive bureaucracy.
Don’t be fooled; this has virtually nothing to do with the environment — unless you consider the plush, air-conditioned offices of the bureaucrats as part of the “environment.” Ditto for the company cars they will be provided at our expense.
The measure purports to spend $25,000,000 for the next 20 years, or more than a half billion dollars of our money.
And will San Francisco Bay be restored in 20 years?
You already know the answer to that question: NO.
Vote NO to send the clear message that existing taxes we already pay can restore the San Francisco Bay wetlands, and that it can be done without creating yet another wasteful bureaucracy.
For more information, please visit our web page:
www.SVTaxpayers.org/2016-measure-aa
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Rebuttal to the Argument in Favor of the
San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority: Measure AA
Don’t be fooled by the title.
This measure isn't about water wildlife. It is about taxes. This "authority" is just a group of politicians creating a new tax.
This tax won't create any new capabilities for cleaning up the bay.
Don't allow your tax dollars to be spent for one group of environmentalists who want to re-engineer nature at extravagant expense when there are other environmentalists that want to preserve the existing thriving wildlife.
Even if every penny goes to bay-related projects, that will just make it easier for politicians to use other tax money for other projects they don't want you to think about or know about.
This is the same old trick we have seen so many times before; politicians pushing a new tax by saying it's the only way to pay for something popular. Unless you vote for a new tax, they will close your neighborhood fire station. School districts say that unless you support a new tax, they will cancel your children's sports programs.
They don't want you to think about, or vote on, all the other ways that they are spending your money. They just want you to see something that sounds important, and believe this new tax is the only way to pay for it.
Just say NO. Don’t let them get away with it. Otherwise, they will come back for more. And when that isn’t enough, they’ll come back again and again.
For more information, please visit our web page:
www.SVTaxpayers.org/2016-measure-aa
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The following organizations and individuals endorse a NO vote on Measure AA:
1. Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association
2. The Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County
3. Linda Koelling, former mayor of Foster City
4. The Republican Party of California
5. The Republican Party of San Mateo County
6. Jack Hickey, Board Member: Sequoia Healthcare District
7. Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
8. Contra Costa County Taxpayers Association
9. Sonoma County Taxpayers Association
A coalition of San Francisco Bay Area taxpayer groups and other interested groups and individuals have created a website specifically to oppose Measure AA: www.stopaa.org