This is an archive of a past election. See http://www.smartvoter.org/ca/sm/ for current information. |
League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
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Measure R Amend Business License Tax City of East Palo Alto Majority Approval Required 2,941 / 75.2% Yes votes ...... 970 / 24.8% No votes
See Also:
Index of all Measures |
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Results as of Dec 15 1:37pm, 100.0% of Precincts Reporting (10/10) |
Information shown below: Impartial Analysis | Arguments | Full Text | ||||
Shall East Palo Alto's business license tax regulations be amended to create a new category for hazardous waste disposal facilities, and to impose thereon a 10% gross receipts tax, which shall be used for general governmental purposes such as public safety, parks and recreation, street maintenance, senior citizen programs, and central administration, and shall expenditure limitations be modified to permit East Palo Alto to spend such revenues?
Hazardous waste disposal facilities are currently classified as manufacturing or processing enterprises under the City's business license tax regulations, paying $1.00 for every $1,000 of gross receipts up to $10 million and $.50 for every $1,000 over $10 million. Approximately 11 businesses in East Palo Alto are classified as manufacturers or processors.
/s/ Michael S. Lawson City Attorney, City of East Palo Alto
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Events Televised Forum
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Arguments For Measure R | Arguments Against Measure R | ||
VOTE YES ON MEASURE R
A TAX ON ROMIC IS ONLY FAIR: Located in East Palo Alto, Romic processes hazardous materials. In this process, toxic and cancer causing chemicals are released into East Palo Alto's air and they contaminate East Palo Alto's water and ground. Romic makes a profit from handling these materials but the residents of East Palo Alto only get an increase in health risks. The new Hazardous Business License Fee, Measure R, will add a considerable sum of money (estimated as between $1 - 2 million) to the City's coffers. This tax will help offset the potential damage to the quality of life to our families by allowing the City to increase other services to our residents, such as after school and youth development programs, programs for seniors, crime prevention and eradication programs, affordable housing programs. This tax would apply to businesses such as Romic that process hazardous materials. The City of East Palo Alto is the only City within the County of San Mateo that houses a plant that processes and stores waste solvents, antifreeze, contaminated wastewater, paints and used oil filters. Approximately forty-five percent of its business is industrial solvents, which can be volatile, flammable, or dangerous in a variety of ways. A VOTE FOR THE HAZARDOUS BUSINESS LICENSE FEE IS ONLY FAIR: if Romic and other hazardous waste businesses make a profit that results in an increase in risk to the health of our families, then they should compensate our residents for that risk in the form of a tax. Measure R will acknowledge the risks that residents face having businesses handling chemicals that are hazardous to people's health located in close proximity to their neighborhoods. VOTE YES ON MEASURE R /s/ Donna Rutherford Mayor /s/ David E. Woods Vice-Mayor /s/ Patricia Foster Council Member /s/ Duane Bay Council Member /s/ Ruben Abrica Former Council Member
East Palo Alto voters have a right to know. After all, whether Measure R passes or not, East Palo Alto's residents will be stuck with a two million dollar deficit. Why? Measure R is poorly written, won't stand up to the simplest compliance test, and is unenforceable. Look it up. Hazardous waste disposal facilities are landfills, pure and simple. But Romic, the intended target of the Council, isn't a landfill, it's a recycling facility. And to encourage recycling, the state exempted recylcing facilities from taxation. Even if the voters pass this measure, all that will happen is to introduce the term landfill as a new use category for the purposes of taxation. The only problem, there are NO landfills in East Palo Alto. No waste is ever stored permanently at Romic and the materials involved are recycled there and then sent away from the town. Council members know that the language in the ballot measure is what the law will recognize and it defines the tax as applying to "hazardous waste disposal" facilities, not recycling operations. So, why play games with us? Do the incumbents have any idea what they actually signed? Do they care? If it passes, it's your tax dollars that will be used to defend this flawed measure, not yours. Vote "no" on Measure R and save yourself the cost of defending it. /s/ William Morton | The current City Council members are playing games with East Palo Alto voters.
Rather than making the difficult choices required to balance the City's budget, the incumbent City Council, the City Manager and the Finance Director are trying to hide a $2 million election year deficit so voters don't realize the council members seeking reelection have messed up the City budget. Passing this 12,000 percent tax increase will not balance the City's budget. In fact, passing this tax increase only will result in the City spending more money in court trying to defend yet another poorly worded tax that violates state law. Though the specific state law was presented during City Council meetings, the council repeatedly ignored the State Law that exempts taxing recycled hazardous waste, under the State Health and Safety Code section 25173.5(b)(2).
State law says "A city or county shall not impose a tax or a user fee adopted pursuant to subdivison (a) upon any of the following:
You can review this state law test on the California Government website by typing http://www.leginfo.ca.gov into your computer internet browser, and reviewing the Health and Safety Code. The City lost the Cole case. The City lost the Utility Tax case. And, the City has no grounds to believe passing this tax will balance the budget. It's a loser. Vote no and save our city budget from thousands of throwaway dollars spent on legal fees to defend another bad decision that will be overturned in court. And, call the City Council members to ask them where they plan to get $2 million to balance the budget. /s/ William Morton, Sr.
Romic handles and processes dangerous chemicals and substances. Many chemicals and substances have not been fully tested to measure their impact on humans and the environment. Romic has released dangerous and cancer-causing chemicals into the air we breathe including DICHLOROMETHANE. Romic has also released ferri-cynide and nitrosodimethalyne numerous times into our sewage system. Romic has had two small fires and willfully endangered one of its workers who is now permanently brain damaged as a result. East Palo Alto residents suffer the consequences for their mess-ups. One recent survey has shown the residents of East Palo Alto have significantly higher cancer rates than residents of San Mateo County; also, 16.6% of the people in East Palo Alto have asthma compared to 6.7% of people in San Mateo County. Because Romic does not have an Environmental Impact Report, we have no idea exactly how they affect our community. But we do know that the substances they work with are dangerous to our health. And we do know there are a large number of residents with cancer, children with asthma, and people in East Palo Alto who are sick. Romic's operations could very well be part of the cause for these conditions. Romic impacts our community's health more significantly than any other business in East Palo Alto. Measure R would not fix the health issues in East Palo Alto, but it's a step to make sure our community is compensated. Vote YES on Measure R! /s/ Isabel A. Loya /s/ Re'Anita Burns /s/ Lourdes Best /s/ Cindy Martinez /s/ Melvin Gaines |
Full Text of Measure R |
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EAST PALO ALTO AMENDING THE BUSINESS LICENSE FEE SCHEDULE TO CREATE A 10% GROSS RECEIPTS TAX ON HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITIES: AND PROVIDING FOR AN ELECTION THEREON
3. There is hereby submitted to the voters of the City of East Palo Alto the following question:
YES _______ NO ______
4. Expenditure limitations imposed by California Constitution Article XIIIB ("Gunn Initiative") are hereby modified to allow the City of East Palo Alto to appropriate and expend such revenues associated with such hazardous waste facility business license taxes.
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