Readers are doubtless relieved that the door finally hit 2019 in the behind and they won’t hear anymore about Threats to Democracy the nation resolved last year: the Mueller Investigation, Impeachment, Ukraine, War with Iran, opioid deaths, border walls, mass shootings, families in cages, fascists, 40 million kids in poverty, Boeing 737 crashes. If Titanic had sunk in 2019, no one would have noticed.
Already 2020 has been so chock-full of American Exceptionalism that it’s hard to track all the Good News. And there is Good News – right here in Sonoma County where, as we’ll see, many households are apparently richer than they imagined.
For example, take the SMART train. Please. If only a few thousand more people rode SMART daily, we could be a First-World Country like China, where despite being invaded & bombed to smithereens in WWII, enduring bloody revolution, fighting Americans to a standstill in Korea, and starving millions to death during Mao’s Great Leap Forward, the Chinese have built the most modern high-speed rail system in the world – 15,000 miles of it.
Admittedly, Sonoma County also suffered during those days, in the brutal conversion of apple orchards to vineyards. But if you believe this season’s Measure I campaign mailers, that socialist (spit) Chinese achievement will soon be eclipsed by the up & coming SMART train. Or not.
Sure, SMART doesn’t always come on time and only travels 40+ miles from Santa Rosa to Larkspur, a distance slightly longer than a ‘57 Buick. To reach San Francisco (SMART doesn’t), you have to hop the Larkspur ferry and float 30 minutes on pre-Columbian technology, minus all those damned flapping sails.
But supporters say SMART “Fights Climate Change” by taking cars off the road. These would be cars Valley residents need to get to the 101 corridor where SMART runs. The only SMART tracks close to the Valley are south of Sonoma, leased to the Northern Pacific RR to park 100+ tank cars of liquid propane. When they explode in this year’s wildfires, the fireball will be visible from the Andromeda galaxy.
But SMART only asks voters to extend – not increase – the current quarter-cent sales tax (otherwise expiring in 2029) that helps fund operations. Measure I would extend it to 2059, to continue providing $40 million/year for system improvements, such as extending SMART to Cloverdale, a megapolis goldmine of paying riders if one counts farm and support animals.
Some perspective: The ¼-cent sales tax = 25 cents more for every $100 spent, meaning that a $50,000 Tesla will cost you an extra $125. If you’ve never even noticed the SMART tax it’s because many purchases – from tampons to Cherries Garcia – are exempted. Others, like oral contraceptives and condoms, are not.
Nonetheless, opponents – one rich lady and her dad – say Measure I “will cost each household more than $8,000.” Presumably that’s their measure of the total per-household cost of the ¼ cent sale tax over the entire 30 years from 2029 to 2059.
$8,000 divided by 30 yrs. = $266/yr. Since the tax is already in effect, opponents seem to suggest “each household” is spending about $106,400 per year on SMART-taxable items, the spending required to pay $266/yr. in SMART taxes. That’s in addition to spending for untaxed things. Like tampons and Cherries Garcia.
With median household income hereabouts about $81,000/yr., many households are (a) way richer than they ever imagined, or (b) overspending to the point of bankruptcy. If your doorbell is ringing, be careful: it could be a process server.
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