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When California voters handed Proposition 26 in 2010, they restricted utility charges to the “affordable price” of offering service.
That meant that cities with their very own utilities, together with Santa Clara, could possibly be violating state legislation if, with out voter approval, they transferred a share of their utility tax revenues to the overall fund.
The difficulty of utility tax income transfers got here to a head in 2016 when a Palo Alto resident sued, saying that metropolis’s switch of 18% of gross revenues from its pure gasoline utility was unlawful. A Superior Courtroom choose agreed, placing utility tax transfers in jeopardy for each metropolis participating within the observe.
Palo Alto has a measure on the Nov. 8 poll to convey its utility switch tax into authorized compliance. We’ve already endorsed Measure L. Now we come to Santa Clara’s related measure.
Santa Clara has been transferring 5% of utility tax revenues to its common fund since 1951. Measure G seeks the voter approval essential to adjust to state legislation and would authorize persevering with town’s utility tax income transfers to the overall fund. Santa Clara faces a $27 million finances deficit. Measure G would generate an estimated $30 million yearly for town.
Measure G has no organized opposition. Voters ought to approve it.