Vote ‘No’ on Measure AA
Vote No on Measure AA, Clean and Healthy Bay Ballot Measure. Of course everyone wants a Clean and Healthy Bay, but this one is brought forward by the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (who?). It puts a special parcel tax of $12 per year for 20 years (read this will never go away) from every parcel of land in all nine counties and is a nine-county-wide vote. It needs a 67% voter approval to pass, and is the first region-wide tax in the Bay Area. You would pay the same rate on your home as would Apple or an apartment complex in SF. Regardless whether voters in one county do not want it, it is the regional vote that will prevail. Much the same as when Marin and Sonoma was tied together for the SMART train vote where Marin defeated it and Sonoma passed by enough margin to put it over the top.
This tax is estimated to generate $25 million a year totaling $500 million. The SF Bay Restoration Authority is governed by a seven-member board, appointed by the executive board of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and that agency will most likely be swallowed up by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (we don’t vote for any of these guys). This agency does not have representatives from each ounty and Marin, of course, doesn’t have a representative. We are just one of the “cash cows” because half the funds would be allocated geographically based strictly on population.
The North Bay counties of Napa, Sonoma, Solono and Marin would get the smallest portion or about $22.5 million (about $5.5 million per county or 9%) while the East Bay gets 18%, the South Bay gets 12% and the West Bay gets 11%. The other $250,000,000 would be prioritized for “their positive impact on the Bay,” according to their own elitist and special interest opinion.
Make no mistake about it, this is a slush fund with all decisions made behind closed doors. Measure AA does not have public transparency or accountability, it offers only one annual public meeting in the nine-county Bay Area. The SF Bay Restoration Authority would appoint their own oversight committee to review the audit and annual report. Umm, let me pick my best friend to tell me what kind of job I am doing! This is taxation without representation in its highest form. VOTE NO! Pass it on!
Novato Republican Women Federated
4 thoughts on “Vote ‘No’ on Measure AA”
Comments are closed.
When even Republicans are calling it a special interest slush fund with no transparency or accountability, it has to be REALLY bad.
Or alternately, if Republicans are against it, that provides a barometer for liberals to be for it.
I’m a strong democrat. I’m voting NO.
This sets a precedent in that it a funding mechanism for ‘Regional Government’.
It seeks to legitimize a regional ‘government’ of unaccountable bureaucrats.
This, along with Plan Bay Area; represents regional plan that would ultimately SUPPLANT the any semblance of representation and sovereignty our individual communities currently enjoy.
Aside from theft (with interest) the inequitable funding structure of the Measure funnels funding to ‘Priority Development Areas’.
If you cherish your rural, country, or even suburban life – I assure you – this won’t be about your priorities.
It will reflect the priorities of UN elitists, and their comprehensive plans (UN Agenda 21 / Agenda 2030).
This will help facilitate the land use / housing components of their oppressive blueprint.
We are in a Kleptocracy, we are being robbed blind.
Schemes like this deceiving measure create big black holes that steal more than just our money.
A couple carefully crafted sentences provide for unlimited expansion of this redundant tax in the future!!!
BTW: try to get a clear picture of how this will ‘restore wetlands’ and The Bay. Try to get a common sense picture of how this will create jobs – other than government bureaucrats and ‘Stakeholders’ sucking on our fiscal teet.