The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors has moved forward with plans to put a new sales tax on the ballot for voters in the upcoming June election.
The board at its meeting Tuesday directed county staff to create a measure that would propose a sales tax of five-eighths of a cent per dollar for five years in response to federal cuts passed by Congress last year.
Supervisors said the measure would return to the board at its Feb. 10 meeting to be approved to go on the ballot ahead of a March deadline for the statewide June 2 primary election. If passed by a majority of the county’s voters, it is estimated to generate $151 million annually for the five years it is in effect.
County officials said the money is needed to backfill federal funding cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs passed last year by the Republican Congress as H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, though the measure would be a general tax with revenues that could be used for any purpose.
“It doesn’t make sense to wait to see how much worse things can get,” Supervisor John Gioia said at Tuesday’s meeting. “This funding is not going to cover the full projected shortfall we’re going to face.”
The agenda document for Tuesday’s meeting said nearly 100,000 Contra Costa residents could lose health insurance coverage, among other impacts from the federal cuts.
Members of multiple local labor unions came to the meeting to express support for the proposal, including Quinton Silket from IFPTE Local 21, which represents health services professionals, engineers, planners, librarians and other county employees.
“We’re very concerned at impacts of these losses,” Silket said. “These cuts don’t just affect programs on paper, they affect real residents here.”
The lone person who spoke out against the proposal at the meeting was Marc Joffe from the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association, who noted that the county’s voters already recently approved a half-cent sales tax as Measure X in 2020.
The county would need approval by the state Legislature to raise a sales tax cap — state law caps the total combined tax rate in a county at 2% unless granted exceptions by the Legislature — and Gioia said state Sen. Jesse Arreguin, D-Berkeley, has indicated he will add the county to existing legislation that could be passed this year to allow the new tax to take effect.
Democratax…. whatz new California?
The ONLY way they seem to ALWAYS choose…Raise the Taxes… Never…. improve the process to save costs… Whose “Fair Share”?
Just buying votes like they always do.
I can give them my No vote right now so they don’t have to waste their time. Don’t the thieves have enough money to steal. They need more?
it will pass. It seems that every time there is a bond or a sales tax increase it passes easily. They campaign with scare tactics warning everyone that every critical service is going to go away. Where is the accountability on how they use the money they have?
There isn’t any. That’s why the state is in the condition it is. The lemmings believe everything they are told by their corrupt politicians, even though they never follow through, and they vote accordingly. They never examine the outcomes and how their yes vote was wasted!
So that you all clearly understand this: The tax increase is being blamed on Trump and then used for any damn thing they want, expires in 5 years – but it won’t expire, it will get extended. We’re being played…again, and while 5/8 of a penny doesn’t sound like much, this is pure incompetence and theft.
Need to buy a new car for $50,000? You’re going to pay an additional $5,000 JUST IN TAXES! Most of you will finance that for 5 – 7 years too. Oh and don’t forget the annual VLF fees. Go ahead an add another $1,000 to your car payment every year.
Stop the madness people.
Apparently the Supervisors flunked history and still believe in MASA, not corn but socialist. Hello supervisors, socialism doesn’t work. Run the county within it’s means not idealism.
this increase of 0.625% won’t add $5000 to the $50,000. It will add $312 to $50,000 but the sales tax in CC and Concord are already too high so adding more is outrageous. You are right that at the current rate of 9.75%!! it will be about an extra $5000 for that car overall though. Some cities in CA have nearly 11% sales tax with one city (Lancaster) having 11.25%. Mind boggling.
This doesn’t even account for all the bonds added every year to our property tax bills.
Can you tell I’m annoyed about this? 🙂
Not surprised. It’s what the wasteful politicians do best. What does surprise me is the buffoonery required from the electorate to keep electing these “tax and spend” clowns.
This bill will be on the ballot, and it will pass. They say the money will help food programs and Medicaid but the money can be used for any purpose. Not a word about stopping fraud or waste. They just need more tax dollars to buy votes. Make no mistake the simple thinking democrat voters will pass the increase without question. At least a sales tax increase will be paid by everyone rich and poor.
I’m surprised BART isn’t trying to get in on the GRIFT!!
Oh they are, I think the Bay Area MTA is pushing for a massive bond in the near future because blah blah blah mismanagement.
Anom,
.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB63, the “Connect Bay Area Act,” a few months ago, which will put a regional sales tax measure on the November 2026 ballot to bailout BART and other San Francisco Bay Area transit agencies. If passed, the 14-year sales tax will increase sales tax by 0.5% in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, and 1.0% in San Francisco County.
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Many central Contra Costa County cities are also considering additional sales tax measures for future ballots.
Awesome! Here we go again. Democrats have never seen a tax hike they didn’t like. Federal cuts to Medicare? What, for illegal aliens? No doubt the Contra Costa lemmings will vote yes by a 2:1 margin. It’s in the bag. Just say Trump took our money and we’ll all starve or die of disease unless we pass this thing!
Stupid politicians. Why is it that their only solution to money problems is to raise taxes and fees? How about addressing the expenses for a change? Reduce overhead, headcount, salaries and benefits. Make a serious attempt to root out fraud. Eliminate redundant programs.
SPEND OUR MONEY AS IF IT WERE YOUR OWN!
This whole country needs a DOGE enema.
Would be nice to know which way each Board member voted so we know who to vote out next election.
Big NO vote from me. Sorry BOS. I’m not voting to pay more taxes because the state is being penalized for supporting illegal aliens. People in California continue to support this fraud by voting for idiots. Let’s have a tax that only liberals have to pay, so that they can pay for their ridiculous voting practices. That’s a sales tax measure I would vote for.
I look forward to voting against it.
How about manage the money you already get, you act like money grows on trees and we just need to go out and pick a few.
back into the slapping machine we go.
Every company in America cuts cost when they need to.
every government agency wants to raise taxes when there short. The tax whores are at it again.
So 10% of the people ‘may’ lose coverage. What % of those people should not be receiving coverage in the first place. The union supports it and the money goes to the general fund to be spent however they want. Let’s market it as money need because of current administration’s cuts. Liars and cheaters, all of them. Hoping it doesn’t pass.
I’m not surprised by the money grab of these “public” officials. I’m always surprised though that people approve them! VOTE NO!
We won’t get anywhere until we can fix the corruption in the CA voting system.
In case you are wondering how it went – The announcement about the vote was posted on Claycord at 8am when the their meeting started at 9am. In case you had nothing better to do on a work day, they inserted celebrations and voting on minuscule decisions, and lunch to push the major tax vote to a random time in the afternoon. So even if you wanted to object, you would have to spend your entire day waiting for them to get to it. There is zero control over how the money will be spend or when they decide to incur millions in debt for random programs. Post all spending decisions online and let people vote, instead of deliberately obfuscating when you are doing it. This is not a democracy.
So they want our money to fund the people who were kicked off Medicaid and food stamps. You mean the people who were kicked off because they did NOT actually qualify???? Make it make sense.
not only “no”, but f*** no!
and time to drain the swamp of EVERY incumbent politician . None of them truly represents the people.