San Benito County is about to receive more than $7 million in windfall funds and they would be best used to start the county’s program for road repair.
The rest of the repairs, ongoing maintenance, and future expansion could be funded by using part of a 1 percent General Sales Transaction Tax in the unincorporated areas bringing that rate approximately equal to the tax rates in Hollister and San Juan Bautista. This tax would generate between $3 million and $4 million a year for the county to use as it desires.
The Board of Supervisors, who have repeatedly stated that they simply had to have additional funding for county roads, are going to be able to put their money where their complaints have been. Thanks, primarily, to the work of Assemblymember Luis Alejo, Governor Brown has forgiven San Benito County’s $3.4 million ERAF debt in the revised state budget. Additionally, the county is receiving more than $4 million from the landfill closing funds in exchange for agreeing to take in trash from out-of-county sources. Together, that $7.4 million would be a perfect kick start for road repair and much of those recaptured landfill fees came from ratepayers throughout the county.
The next issue is funding for ongoing maintenance and future expansion. While it is true that “everyone uses the county roads” – the main argument used for a countywide tax – most people do not use the roads in South County and almost everyone uses the city roads, also in disrepair. The facts on the ground are that Hollister and San Juan Bautista have already anted up with general transaction taxes while the unincorporated areas are paying about 1 percent less even though 40 percent of the taxable sales transactions occur in the unincorporated areas.
According to the Census, the highest median household income in the county is in the unincorporated areas. Ridgemark has a median household income of $99,913, Tres Pinos $74,167, and Aromas $73,500, versus the cities of Hollister $62,412 and San Juan Bautista $51,635. Yet, the residents of the unincorporated areas can purchase big-ticket items for hundreds of dollars less in taxes than city residents.
The real reason the county is going for a countywide tax is that they do not believe that the residents of the unincorporated areas will pass a transaction general tax even though the hurdle is only a voting majority (more than 50 percent). I believe that they can level the local tax burden if they were willing to invest the required political capital and campaign for it. At a minimum, they should not surrender before the fight. If the voters in the unincorporated areas refuse to pony up a fair share and say so at the ballot box the city residents need to know it.