KernTax has suggested the county Board of Supervisors put on the ballot a 1 cent general sales tax.  Along with the tax measure, KernTax has asked the Board to pass rules that would commit funds from the new sales tax to public safety and transportation projects.

The main idea is to tie up those funds by bonding against them to build a new county jail and to match the Thomas Road Improvement Plan federal dollars for major road projects in the county.  This way, the idea goes, the new tax won't effectively be a new general fund tax.  But because it is not really a special tax, it would only need a 51% vote to pass.

Full disclosure--I am on the KernTax board.  So I understand what the thinking is behind this. But I don't think this is the right way to go.  The fact is that the new sales tax would be a general fund tax increase. The board could promise to spend it wisely, but would not be bound in anyway by that promise.  In recent years the County budget has not done any really outrageous things, but neither has it shown the kind of discipline being proposed for this tax.  The majority of every increase in revenue has gone to hiring new staff, and the growing threat of pension and health obligations for an expanding workforce doesn't seem to slow down the hiring.

The bottom line is that I am not sure this Board would spend a new 1 cent sales tax increase responsibly, and I am REALLY not sure a future board would.  We'd be far better off revisiting a 1/2 cent transportation only sales tax and getting things right so that people will trust the process enough to put more money into it.  That is a tall order, sure enough.  But if our transportation needs are so serious that we need a new tax to fund them, then so is the the work of proving the county--and the city of Bakersfield--is doing a good job with current dollars, and the hard task of prioritizing the budget and making some cuts so that more resources can be put into transportation.  So far I have not seen the county or the city willing to do either, which makes it apparent they don't really put transportation in the top tier of priorities.  So why should I, or you, fork over more of my money for it? 

I am reluctant to support any tax increase, and supported Measure I in '06 only because all the ducks were in a row.  It almost passed.  This new 1 cent sales tax proposal is not nearly as accountable and it just does not make sense to me.