Letter: Contra Costa Taxpayers Association Questions Legality of County-Wide Sales Tax

As has been reported widely, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to place a County-wide 0.625% sales-tax-increase measure on the June 2nd ballot. Denise Kalm, an Executive Board member of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association and representing same, has transmitted a related letter, (see below), to the managers and clerks of the County’s 19 incorporated cities and towns.

While CoCoTax opposes this regressive new tax measure (and amid other problems, its serious impact upon those with fixed or low incomes), the issues which CoCoTax wishes to raise for public attention presently relate to the legality of the tax increase. As stated in the city/town letter: if enacted, this increase will raise the local sales-tax rate for every jurisdiction in the County above the statutory 2% cap on what counties, cities, towns, and special-district agencies can legitimately add to the existing statewide sales-tax base rate of 7.25%, under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 7251.1.

To ordinary citizens (though not to some politicians), that section means that no total sales tax rate in California should exceed 9.25% (i.e., 7.25% + 2.00%). Unfortunately, too many jurisdictions have already implemented sales-tax rates which exceed that explicit limit. CoCoTax believes that to be a violation which ignores/negates black-letter law.

How did this happen? It’s because certain politicians have become comfortable in circumventing the law, and so such cynical bypasses of State Code are becoming normalized. 2020’s Measure X already raised Contra Costa sales taxes by 0.5%, ensuring that some jurisdictions here already exceed the 2% cap. SB1349 (Glazer) was the vehicle used to bypass the cap in 2020; CoCoTax opposed that bill and opposes any other measure designed once again to negate sales-tax caps.

As with Measure X, CoCoTax expects the County to play word games once again. SB1349 declared explicitly that a tax increase enabled by that measure “would not be considered for purposes of the combined rate limit established by [RTC] Section 7251.1” and claimed that what they were doing wasn’t a change, but was instead “declaratory of existing law.” That was a bald lie. In effect, the County and some of its municipal jurisdictions are saying that there’s really no actual upper limit on sales-tax rates.

Another process strategy was behind-scenes advocacy by some city managers, initially to endorse the supposedly enabling, law-breaking negations of State Code, with or without approval from respective municipal Councils or needed public hearings. Such unilateral managerial action occurred at least twice in the case of SB1349, though a majority of voters in the jurisdictions involved later rejected Measure X. But it passed anyway, due to the County-wide vote totals.

CoCoTax believes that every County jurisdiction should demand that existing law be followed. Failing that, CoCoTax expects transparency in efforts to extract even more money from already overburdened Contra Costa taxpayers. Specifically, CoCoTax believes that citizens must have opportunities in publicly noticed meetings to weigh in when endorsements are planned for breaking the law or for ballot measures seeking the abusive new taxes which then result from the law-breaking.

CoCoTax hopes that members of the press will let their readers/viewers know what is happening, behind the scenes, as Contra Costa County maneuvers to facilitate another sales-tax increase.

Letter submitted by the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association