La Mesa, California, which is east of San Diego, is on the radar screen of many statewide politicos because it has produced a couple of East San Diego County’s conservative leaders – FR blogger Barry Jantz and former Assemblyman Jay LaSuer, both of whom served for many years on the City Council there. It’s also the home town of current Assemblyman Joel Anderson.
Well, if you ever needed a sign that taxpayers are only safe when the guardians are at the gate, the current iteration of the La Mesa City Council voted by a 4-1 margin to place massive ¾ cent sales tax increase on the November ballot (kudos to Councilwoman Ruth Sterling for voting no).
Fortunately, advocates of the taxpayers in the community are rallying big-time against this dumb idea* of a tax hike. The La Mesa Taxpayers Association has dropped a large mailer citywide opposing the tax. Also, the San Diego County Republican Party has dropped a piece to La Mesa Republicans urging a strong NO on Measure L. You can see both pieces linked at the bottom of this blog post.
(For political insiders, there is a great jab at the Republican-In-Name-Only Mayor of La Mesa, Art Madrid, in this quote from the LMTA piece: “My retirement fund is hit hard, health care costs are soaring, my house value is shrinking, I can’t afford to fill my gas tank… and now La Mesa politicians want me to pay more taxes… Are they all drunk?” LOL. If you still don’t get it, this will help you get the jab.)
Besides the La Mesa Taxpayers Association and the San Diego County Republican Party, who are some of those opposing this tax increase?
- San Diego County Taxpayers Association
- Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
- San Diego Tax Fighters
- The San Diego Union Tribune
- East County Chamber of Commerce
- Joel Anderson, CA State Assemblyman
- Jay LaSuer, Former Assemblyman / Council member
- Ruth Sterling, La Mesa City Council Member
- Bill Baber, La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board Member
- Michael Hansen, Grossmont Shopping Center General Manager
- Keith Barnett, President, La Mesa Taxpayers Association
Hopefully Measure L will go down in flames, and then the members of the La Mesa City Council can get out their red pens and start making cuts in city spending (starting with the lavish, union-backed employee pensions in La Mesa — it’s no wonder L is backed by the city’s public employee unions, and the President of two of them have signed the ballot argument in support of the tax hike).
For more information on Measure L, you can go here.
* What kind of STUPID elected officials try to pass a sales tax when our economy is teetering on the brink of a recession? I guess the same kind of NON-THINKERS who don’t contemplate that consumers would travel a few blocks out of their way to buy goods in a place that doesn’t have outrageously high taxes.