Letter: Measure J proponents are deceiving
To the editor,
I am writing to address that actual tax effect of Measure J. The proponents describe this as a .5% increase which is deceiving in 2 ways.
First lets look at the sales tax breakout for SLO:
- California State Sales Tax 6.50%
- San Luis Obispo County Sales Tax 1.00%
- City Sales Tax N/A
- Special Sales Tax N/A
- Combined Sales Tax 7.50%
First the increase is a 6.67% rate increase of the total sales tax on SLO which is significant as the 7.5% rate will go to 8%.
Secondly, the county sales tax is 1%. This will increase that tax by a whopping 50% to 1.5%.
SLO needs to work within the 1% budget allotted. There is over $3B in tourism dollars in addition to what the residents spend so 1% of all that is very significant. Instead of fighting for state funds to SLO, the answer is to increase our taxes. Vote yes on this increase and you can bet there will be much more to come.
Keith J Entwistle
Paso Robles
