Contra Costa Board Flips on Library
Tax Proposal
County supervisors have withdrawn their support for a proposed March 2000 sales tax initiative that would have raised $10 million annually for the Contra Costa County Library in Pleasant Hill, California. The board voted 4-1 August 17 to table the measure in favor of a substitute plan that ties the library's funding to a “quality of life” measure, supported by supervisors Donna Gerber and John Gioia, in November 2000 that would also fund open-space preservation and urban revitalization.
The alternative measure would cost taxpayers twice as much (one-quarter of one cent) as the original proposal. Gioia told the August 18 San Francisco Chronicle that land-conservation supporters would reinforce the efforts of library advocates, who have seen three measures defeated since 1992.
But Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier, who cast the lone vote against the new plan, told reporters that the multiple goals of the measure will only confuse voters. He said delaying the referendum may also aggravate some cities that had threatened to secede without an influx of new revenue.
Posted August 23, 1999.
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