By Julie Mehta
Two issues that could have major repercussions on the city's budget and planning policy have officially been placed on the November ballot.
At its July 23 meeting, the City Council adopted a resolution to place the utility-users tax and the Binkley General Plan amendment before the voters this fall. Two City Council seats will also be decided on the same day.
The City Council directed the city attorney to write impartial analyses of the measures not exceeding 500 words. The councilmembers indicated they do not want to participate in the Binkley Measure G election and appointed Mayor Paul Jacobs and Councilmember Ann Marie Burger to write an argument in favor of the utility-users tax.
The council also officially authorized that rebuttal arguments be permitted in the election. Each measure costs $3,500 to place on the ballot; Bob Binkley is footing the bill for the measure about his property.
The Binkley proposal is the first affected by Measure G and concerns a proposed lot line adjustment between two Pierce Road parcels. The adjustment would increase the size and thereby improve the building site of the smaller, half-acre parcel.Because moving the boundary between the properties involves putting part of the land in a denser zoning category, the issue requires voter approval according to Measure G, which was passed in March.
Because of state law and threats of a lawsuit, the utility-users tax, which brings the city $1.6 million of revenue annually, must get voter approval to be extended to Jan. 1, 2001. The city has collected the tax for more than 10 years, twice approving five-year extensions of it.
The Pacific Legal Foundation earlier this year argued that the tax requires a majority public vote according to the terms of Proposition 62, which was passed in 1986. The city answered that its tax was not subject to the law because it was first levied before the law took effect, but the foundation threatened to sue if the city did not put the most recent extension of the tax on the ballot.
If this tax fails, city officials predict major cuts in city services will need to be made.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, July 24, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved