La Mesa Unanimously Rejects SANDAG Sky Gondola Tax; Tax And Spend Republicans In Vista and El Cajon Betray Taxpayers

Bravo to the taxpayer champions in La Mesa for unanimously rejecting the SANDAG Sky Gondola tax.  You may have seen Councilwoman Alessio and I debating on these pages about procedural points but, when push came to shove, she (and her colleagues) stood up to this horrific tax proposal.  Here’s Alessio:

The vote in La Mesa was 5-0 against. All council members voting No. The reasons were as follows:
1. Not enough allocated to local infrastructure;
2. Length of tax (40 years) is too long;
3. La Mesa has the second highest sales tax rate in the County and if this is passed, we would be within 1/4 cent of our statutory limit on taxation, thus bind the hands of councils 25 or 30 years down the road to propose any tax increases for something necessary for La Mesa.

A little farther east, The El Cajon City Council only had one Council member (Bob McClellan) who signified opposition to the SANDAG Sky Gondola Tax and the Council refused to go on record with an up-or-down vote.   McClellan is your taxpayer champion in El Cajon and The El Cajon Tax and Spend Republican Club welcomes Mayor Bill Wells and Council Members Tony Ambrose, Instar Bales and Gary Kendrick.

In North County, Vista City Council signaled support for the resolution.  After a heated discussion, Democrat Cody Campbell tried to weasel out of a public vote but joined Tax and Spend Republicans Mayor Judy Ritter and (hopeful Mayor) John Aguilera in votng for the SANDAG Sky Gondola Tax.  Deputy Mayor Amanda Rigby and Councilman John Franklin were warriors in their opposition and getting the tax and spenders on record.  Watch Campbell try to get out of the public vote and Franklin, holding his feet to the fire at 2:05:00 here.  Listening to Ritter and Aguilera try to rationalize this black hole tax was sickening.

Here is the scorecard for those watching:  Poway, Escondido, and La Mesa unanimously oppose the SANDAG Sky Gondola Tax.  The Tax and Spend Republicans in Vista and El Cajon joined with the Democrats is supporting it.  Coronado has it on its agenda in the first week and May.  Council Member Rob McNelis in Santee is facing heavy opposition for a public vote from tax and spend Republicans in Santee, and we are waiting to hear if Kristin Gaspar in Encinitas and Ginger Marshall in Solana Beach are successful in getting an up or down vote on their City Councils.

I don’t know if we will defeat this tax but we are certainly going to smoke out the tax and spend Republicans along the way.