Measure F is a Failure

OPINION on Measure F by Brian Burke

I urge the citizens of Santa Monica to reject “Measure F” and consider it for what it is—a bypass at fiscal management.

Let us not reject Measure F simply because it is a tax. As citizens we acknowledge that taxes are part of our responsibility as citizens. We know public services and good schools cannot be sustained on a stop gap measure—they need sustained annual commitments in the form of sustaining annual budgets.

What’s objectionable is when a city skirts the process, goes outside normal budgetary protocals to build a complicated—and somewhat convoluted—stop gap mechanism that replaces the normal budgetary process, which is key in a democracy because it is always open to public review and debate. Measure F offers a panoply of shifting taxes, from business license taxes here to parking fees there, items that should have been part of the regular budgetary process and debate.

For example, why should we give a tax break to retailers like "Louis Vuitton" but raise the license fee for local business owners? Why raise parking fees here and lower others there.

Look at the very first words of “Measure F” in which the city offers a rationale for this odd tax shape shift: “To fund essential city services such as 911 emergency response…”

“Good,” we instinctively think. But wait. Doesn’t the city already have a budget? Hasn’t the city anticipated our 911 needs, well in advance, and budgeted for them, well in advance? Hasn’t it published this budget? Or has it? And why are we crying poor now—of all times—when the city is in the middle of a massive real estate boom?

And please let’s stop pandering to our police and fire departments and give them the normal respect they deserve. If 911 is so important, as I believe it is, we should budget for it, way in advance, in public, with an open budgetary review process.

As a city we should abandon these confusing and somewhat convoluted stop gap measures—measures, we need note, that could easily be made permanent and thus disappear altogether from the annual budget and public view.

Brian Burke