Dead gopher

The way the idea for a half-cent sales-tax increase in the city of San Diego was floated and then quickly pulled from consideration this week was uproariously funny. The notion popped its head above ground like a gopher and was mercilessly beaten to death by a gang of anti-tax zealots before Mayor Jerry Sanders dragged its bloody, disfigured carcass away for disposal.

Why did Sanders bother pitching the idea if he was just going to yank it at the first sign of displeasure from a group of conservatives, whose opposition to tax increases is as predictable as the marine layer in June. Hilarious.

What’s not quite as humorous is that the agenda at City Hall is framed by a cabal—the local Republicans, the county Taxpayers Association and the Lincoln Club—that’s to the political right of the citizenry yet claims to speak for us all. The voters will never go for a sales-tax increase, they howl, even though, as CityBeat reported this week on its blog, at least one opinion poll suggested that the public might support a modest, short-term tax hike.

But, hey, when there’s a leadership void, we can hardly blame the no-taxes crowd for moving to fill it. That gopher’s head was teed up nicely; all they had to do was give it a good whack. Game over. Thanks for playing.

But while that varmint is good and gone, a much larger beast, the city’s budget deficit, is alive and well, lurking menacingly around every corner and baring its sizeable chompers. The city has fought it off in recent years to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and yet it keeps coming back for more. Next year’s shortfall is estimated to be around $72 million.

The anti-tax cabal that apparently strikes such fear into Sanders’ heart says it wants more employee-pension reform and more outsourcing of city jobs to the private sector, yet further pension reform wouldn’t reap immediate benefits, and the cabal can’t even quantify outsourcing’s benefits. Ask members of the cabal what concessions they’ve made, and all they can point to is some modest fee increases for direct services.

Meanwhile, the labor groups they love to demonize have conceded employee pay and pension benefits and retiree-healthcare cuts for new hires. It’s true that some labor leaders helped, in large part, to create the mess; it’s also true that the unions are really the only players—besides the citizens who are getting lower levels of services—who’ve made sacrifices. Other than bitch and moan about the unions, the anti-tax cabal hasn’t offered jack.

Sanders and the City Council years ago should have set in motion two changes that would produce roughly $65 million a year in new revenue— one that has been talked about a lot (charging single-family homes for trash pickup) and one that’s been talked about a little (raising the storm-drain fee for all property owners).

Businesses and people who live in multi-family buildings pay private haulers for trash pickup, but unlike in almost all other cities, people who live in houses get it for free, and the city’s general fund bears the burden ($34 million last year). There’s a series of steps—including a popular vote to repeal a 91-year-old law—that would have to occur before the city could start charging (about $15 per month) that would take two years to complete.

The city hasn’t raised the storm-drain fee, which pays for federally mandated water-pollution controls, since 1996, even though there’s been a dramatic rise in the cost of the program. At one time, the fee covered the whole cost, but now it covers less than a fifth of it. For example, homeowners pay just 95 cents per month, but they’d pay $5.49 per month if they were carrying their full weight. Achieving full cost recovery could net the city’s general fund about $31 million. But, as with the trash fee, it would take up to two years for the city to jump through the hoops necessary to get it done.

Despite what the no-tax cabal says, we believe the public understands that the city’s financial troubles are not entirely the fault of overreaching public-employee unions—there’s also the matter of a deep recession resulting in severely reduced sales-, property- and hotel-tax revenue. These targeted service-fee hikes would do much to help the city balance its books.

All it takes is a little bit of leadership. Too bad there isn’t any.

What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.