The Monterey County Board of Supervisors is proposing another sales tax increase to pay for financial problems involving local parks even though California State law limits the combined rate of all local sales or transaction taxes in any county to two percent. Some might recall that Governor Brown signed SB 705 in October of 2015 which allowed Measure X to exceed the 2 percent limitation. Any additional sales tax increase would require another legislative measure. Monterey County Park System includes several thousand acres of valuable Monterey County land. Some locations are merely parks which produce little (if any) income to the county, but, it would appear that notable locations like Leguna Seca, Lake Nacimiento, Lake San Antonio, and Toro Park would produce sufficient income to pay for the less productive parks. The real question here: “What can Monterey County do to make their park system pay for itself?” If there are capital improvements which would end the deficit spending on our parks, how much would it cost? And why not propose that amount as the basis for the sales tax increase so that the county could determine a sunset date for this tax? Virgil M. Piper
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