Pittsburg may ask voters to raise the city’s sales tax by half of a percentage point, to 9.75%, to address a backlog in street maintenance, City Manager Garrett Evans said Friday.
Evans said Pittsburg is considering putting the increase on the November ballot to erase $84 million in deferred maintenance on its approximately 345 miles of roadway, many of which include or are planned to include bike lanes.
The move comes two weeks after another Bay Area city, Manteca, announced it may ask to raise its sales tax rate by a full percentage point, to 9.25%, to improve police and fire services and street repairs.
Pittsburg’s sales tax increase, which would generate between $5.5 million and $6.5 million a year, would require support by at least two-thirds of the votes cast, Evans said in a press release.
Without an increase in the sales tax, he said, the city could be forced to cut back or eliminate services and programs.
29 comments
The question here is, what did they do with the gas tax money they got.
Wonder how much revenue Pittsburg lost when steel plant closed ? ?
Good question Snick …. also, you know it will never go back down – it will be a permanent increase
They can go fly a kite and eat sand!
or…. they could present the voters with a current line by line item budget and let them cut the monies that support things that maybe shouldn’t be….
Is someone map challenged ?
When did Manteca become a Bay Area city ?
ORIGINAL G,
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While we’re used to the 9-county San Francisco Bay Area definition, San Jaoquin County and several other counties make up the 15- or 16-county Greater San Francisco Bayy Area. Sorry, I can’t remember if it’s 15 or 16 counties.
Have never heard that description before.
To me once you’re out in the flat lands, highways 99 and 5 you are in the central valley.
What you described sounds very much like something unelected bureaucrats invented to extend their influence, control and power to dictate “growth” to match their preconceived ideas.
Original G,
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Yes, you’re right, it’s a bureaucratic definition. According to the federal government executive branch Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the 9-county San Francisco Bay Area (minus Sonoma County as of 2023), plus the counties of Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, and Stanislaus make up the San Jose-Oakland-San Francisco Combined Statistical Area (CSA), which itself is made up of 9-smaller Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). My guess is that as housing for SFBA workers moved further out of the 9-county SFBA over the last 40 years, and into these other counties, then caused bureaucrats to come up with other definitions, which included these other 5-counties, sometimes they even include Monterey County, too. It’s government, we can’t expect much different from them.
It seems that cities have only one answer to the problems that are there fault, it’s always to raise taxes.
Remember the gas tax?
What about the increase in the gas tax?
I think that is coming in July? Maybe June. We get no say in that one. It seems to be set on automatic.
Pittsburg voters: Take a look at the roads in and around Concord…. We’ve been there – done that… 😉 Think hard! What is the only thing that there is never enough of once you get elected to politics (and can vote for your own salary raises)? Regular taxes~ Far-less-often than ever street maintenance taxes~ Street Light conversion taxes~ Special Needs (; ‘Temporary’ taxes~ Downtown Renovation taxes~ ADA compliance taxes~ free buses for the “poor” taxes~ Flushing is VERY expensive taxes~ … I can keep going……..
And just when you think you can take a breath… they tell you THEY are going to make YOU pay seperately for sidewalk repairs…even though they are on the other side of your Setback Easement —and “they” will dictate which (kickback) Contractor you can use…. hmmmmm.
No, nope, nada, or no way. Pick one.
Nein.
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Only idiots would tax themselves for the City’s mismanaging road maintenance & repair funds… a severe lack of prioritization and fiscal programming.
How many ways and times have we paid for the roads? The government keeps charging(and ripping off) taxpayers over and over again, and nothing gets fixed.
Dorothy,
Luv the “Pick One”‘s….
Can we add: “No Way In H-E-Double Tooth Picks !”
???
🙂
Lucy is asking Charlie Brown to try and kick the football yet again. Some voters never learn.
What happened to the gas tax, the bridge tolls increases and the toll lane money?
The same thing that happens with all tax dollars – Wasted and not used for what the democrat state government promises it will be used for.
There are millions of hybrids and EVs in California. The hybrids are paying a lot less in gasoline taxes, and the EVs are not paying any gasoline taxes. It won’t be long before the state starts taxing us on how many miles we drive. They will force us to install a mileage monitor on our cars, and by 2035 all cars sold in California will be electric with a built-in mileage monitor.
This is what the Dems voted for when they elected Newsom, now they are complaining. What fools they are.
Citizens of Pittsburg,
Access a copy of the budget and see how much the PD sucks up. Average PD’s in this country suck up AT LEAST 60% of local budgets. And yet when question about all crime increases they say the can’t do xyz because they don’t have the money. And while you are at it look at ALL top dogs salaries, not just the PD but all depts. It’s not the actual workers sucking up money but the top dogs. I recommend the people of Concord do the same/
This 100% will not help the roads get any better lol
Pittsburg voters, don’t vote for this sales tax increase unless the Measure specifies that 100% of the funding goes to roadway maintenance, it shouldn’t include funding public transportation, and shouldn’t include language allowing funding to be diverted to other budgetary shortfall items by the Pittsburg City Manager and/or the Pittsburg City Council, and can’t be taken by the State of California.
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Don’t make the mistake that Concord voters did when they voted for a permanent 1% sales tax increase to fund “city services, including emergency response, disaster preparedness, local businesses, street repair, gang prevention, law enforcement and addressing homelessness.” Could that definition have been anymore vague? The Concord City Council voted themselves a $500.00 per Councilmember, per month, pay raise and gave the City Manager and City Attorney a 14% pay raise over 3-years.
A century ago, the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce placed newspaper ads proclaiming:
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“Pittsburg
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Industrial City of the West
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Annual Payroll Over $7 Million
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Home of the following industries:
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Columbia Steel Corporation.
Redwood Manufacturers’ Company.
F.E. Booth Company.
Great Western Electro Chemical Co.
Johns-Manville, Inc., of California.
Pioneer Rubber Mills.
National Chemical Company.
Coast Counties Gas and Electric Co.
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More wage earners own their homes in Pittsburg than in any other cities of its size in California.
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Pittsburg has its own water system, every street within city limits is paved, fine schools, Churches, Public Library, Civic, Service, Social, and Fraternal organizations. Its community and industrial development bespeak of its future.
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Pittsburg is served by three trans-continental railroads and ocean going vessels can take cargoes at its wharves.
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For further information address
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Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce
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Chamber of Commerce building, 10th and Los Medanos Streets, Pittsburg, California”
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How times have changed! Maybe the time has come for the City of Pittsburg to rebrand itself again, it was rebranded as “Pittsburg” in the past, formerly known as “Black Diamond,” “New York Landing,” and New York of the West.” Just as “Concord” was previously “Todos Santos,” “Antioch” was previously “East Antioch,” “Smith’s Landing,” and “Marsh’s Landing,” “Port Chicago” was previously “Bay Point,” and “Bay Point” was previously “West Pittsburg,” and “Bella Vista.”
Just an idea, how about taxing the free-loading Section 8’s, etc. on ALL THE FREEBIES ???
Bottom line is that the government can’t be trusted our money. They are deceptive and don’t keep their promises.
p.s. How’s that 12 cent road repairs gas tax(that got forced on us) working out for everyone? Are any roads fixed yet?
Heck NO, I’m already paying an additional 6 cents that was supposed to fix all the roads. They redid part of Leland, that was about it. Taxed Enough Already!
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