{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"Supervisors consider proposing a tax to fund water and fire","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":389,"description":"May 19, 2022 — The Board of Supervisors considered proposing a sales tax to fund firefighting efforts and water projects this week. The Board cannot impose a tax, but it can draft an ordinance and put it before the voters on a ballot. In this case, the tax initiative would appear on the November ballot, which could also feature a quarter-cent tax initiative to fund the libraries.\r\nMeasure B, the tax to fund mental healthcare facilities, is due to decrease from a half cent to an eighth of a cent this year. The Supervisors hope to make up the difference with the new tax, which Interim CEO Darcie Antle calculated would bring in about $7 million a year. “The Measure B tax that currently comes in on an average has been around $9 million a year,” she said. “If you start with the $9 million, the three-eighths is $7 million.”\r\nSupervisor Dan Gjerde told his colleagues he is not the voter who needs to be persuaded, but he’s also not convinced the Board can sell it to a two-thirds majority of the electorate. “The voters are not going to rubber-stamp a tax that this Board of Supervisors puts on the ballot,” he cautioned. “I think we should approach this with some humility.” He reminded the Board of the referendum effort to collect signatures demanding that a new cannabis ordinance, Chapter 22.18, be rescinded. “It was likely to succeed at overturning that ordinance,” he recalled. The demand to rescind never made it to the ballot. Instead, the Supervisors, who had voted 4-1 with Supervisor John Haschak dissenting to pass the new ordinance, agreed to rescind it without a campaign fight. “I don’t think we have the credibility to go to the voters and say, of all the ways that you can spend your tax dollars, this is the way,” Gjerde continued. He said he thinks there are good arguments to be made for funding water and fire services, but that he believes successful tax initiatives come from the electorate, like the volunteer library supporters, who are busy gathering signatures...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}