Saratoga News

Voters Accept Measure K, Reject Measure L

By Sarah Lombardo

The utility-users' tax may soon be history in Saratoga.

The tax, identified as Measure L on the ballot, was narrowly defeated Tuesday night by fewer than 100 votes.

The measure earned the support from 49.6 percent of voters, or 5,556 people, while 50.4 percent of the electorate, or 5,658 people, voted against the tax.

The measure's defeat was a next step in a long battle between city officials, some residents and the Pacific Legal Foundation. The tax that inspired the measure and the measure itself have been at the heart of debate in Saratoga all year.

The measure was put on the ballot by the City Council to let voters decide on the continuation of the utility-users' tax, a 3.5 percent tax on residents' Pacific Gas & Electric bills. It was enacted in 1985 by a vote of the City Council and was scheduled to expire in five years. But, in 1990 and 1995, the City Council extended the tax. The city agreed to put the tax on the ballot in response to threats of a lawsuit from the Pacific Legal Foundation, which claimed the tax was illegal under Proposition 62.

Proposition 62, passed in 1986, requires a majority public vote for general taxes and a two-thirds vote for special taxes. The PLF contends that under Proposition 62, the extension of the tax without a public vote was unconstitutional.

City officials claim the tax is legal because it was first enacted before Proposition 62. Now that voters have rejected the tax, the City Council is required to repeal the tax as soon as legally possible.

According to Saratoga Finance Director Thomas Fil, the tax itself brings in $808,000 a year. State and county matching funds connected to the tax bring in an extra $691,000. City officials say the city is in for major cuts in services and personnel without those funds.

Saratoga resident Bob Binkley probably hopes he can implement Measure K as soon as possible. Instead, he will have to wait at least until January 1997. But he didn't sound too upset about that Tuesday night.

"We've been celebrating," he said upon hearing the measure had passed. "We had champagne and a few people over."

Measure K, the initiative to allow a change in the zoning of a parcel of land off Pierce Road, earned support from 81 percent of Saratoga voters, or 9,120 people. The initiative will allow Binkley to make a lot line adjustment to his property, increasing the size of a half-acre lot by another half an acre.

The measure was the first case tested under Measure G, passed in March, which requires a public vote for any change in the city's general plan that would increase land-use intensity, housing density or changes in land zoning categories.

Measure G supporters claim cases like Binkley's, unopposed by neighbors, were never meant to be affected by Measure G, but city officials said they were following legal and staff council when applying Measure G to Binkley's case.

Because the city is only allowed to make four general plan amendments each year, which the city has already done this year, Binkley's lot line adjustment will have to wait until 1997.