Editor:
Measure O will increase the County sales tax by 1 percent. Eureka has a 9.25 percent sales tax. Arcata and Fortuna are proposing to follow. If approved, our sales tax in the largest commercial areas in the county would be 10.25 percent, which is among the highest in the entire U.S.
The sales tax in Redding is 7.25 percent, Ukiah 8.88 percent, Sacramento 8.75 percent, and Red Bluff 7.50 percent. I won’t be buying my next car in Humboldt County.
Measure Z (approved in 2014) adds $12 million to the budget every year and promised to improve roads and public safety. Measure O would add an additional $24 million every year to the county budget. The board is once again giving us vague promises about improving roads and public safety, but there are no limits on how the funds could be spent.
Let’s hold the board of supervisors responsible for managing within their current budget, without giving them another huge slush fund to spend recklessly. Vote no on O!
Deborah Lynne, Eureka
This article appears in Combating the Barred Owl Invasion.