It’s not just that Donna Frye voted against putting the sales tax on the ballot, its how she did it. She warned the majority of Democrats days ago that she wouldn’t vote to put a tax increase on the a ballot without cuts at the same time. Yet again, labor and her fellow Democrats rolled their eyes and ignored her.
Today she asked to vote last. I guess that should have given us a hint that something was up. Then every Democrat went on the record, voting to put a sales tax on the a ballot. Only then did Frye vote no.
Perhaps more interesting are the secret meetings conducted by Sanders, Hueso, Gloria, and San Diego School Board President Richiard Barrera. Seriously? According to the Voice of San Diego the Mayor promised Barrera to essentially help gut key provisions of Proposition 13 (to push for a lower 55 percent threshold for passing school parcel taxes) support a property tax increase (and to help pass a school parcel tax if San Diego Unified pursues one in the future) and now, obviously support a sales tax.
It is getting increasingly difficult to avoid that this Mayor’s answers to the financial problems at the city aren’t cuts, they are new taxes. This Mayor has been fairly popular… not sure if that will be the case if he decides to take a whack at small business owners during a recession.
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I described Frye as “a consistently honest councilmember” a couple of days ago in a post here, and this is more evidence. Frye gave fair warning that she was not committed to a sales tax hike. But the politerati dismissed her concerns as political posturing. Surprise, surprise, surprise !– Frye meant what she said!
While some City Hall politicians want their legacy to be a shiny but expensive new City Hall building or schoolbrary, I think Frye would be happier to have her name on a “toilet to tap” water recycling plant. Not as glamorous, but much more useful to San Diegans.
No, Frye isn’t a “maverick politician,” unless that’s defined as not making statements one doesn’t believe in — like the two-faced City Hall politicians who rejected a tax hike in public, while working for one in private.
I’m very sorry for the San Diego Union-Tribune’s management, which assumed that Lightner was the one it had to browbeat into voting to put the tax hike on the ballot.
Reporters Liam Dillon and Emily Alpert at Voice of San Diego are upset that the proposed sales tax hike didn’t get to the ballot.
Note their description: “For more than a month, plenty of talking, both in public and in private, has centered on proposing a tax increase in a famously tax-averse city.”
Nice neutral characterization there! According to VOSD’s belief system, the city’s opposition to taxes is the culprit, rather than elected officials’ record of spending beyond their means.
The VOSD reporters falsely claim, The city has a $70 million-plus deficit next year and no one has any ideas on how to solve it. . . .
In fact, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, — quoted in VOSD — said $34 million of that deficit — about half — could be eliminated by privatizing trash collection. And that’s just one person.
. . .A toddler choked to death last week after previous budget cuts left the Fire Department slow to respond
And Dillon and Alpert at Voice of San Diego follow the demagogy of those who cut vital services and then cry for higher taxes.
Don’t support Voice of San Diego until and unless it changes its ways.