By Donna Westfall – November 14, 2021

Last year the people of this city and country voted to approved increasing the sales tax by 1%, and increasing the fire district assessment tax by $74/year.

Voters in California approved Prop 19 which did away with the Death tax. And parents/grandparents and taxpayers, dismayed with the state of affairs concerning the dumbing down of our public school children have come up with a way to distribute our property tax dollars in a more equitable manner.

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, we’ll be taking at look at each of these issues starting with the local issues: 1% sales tax and the Fire District Assessment Tax.

First we’ll contact Crescent City, City Hall and ask some pertinent questions like:

1. Who came up with the idea of increasing the sales tax?

2. What other options did they investigate before coming to the conclusion that an increase in sales tax was the best option?

3. Did the City Council members ask good questions when this tax was discussed?

4. If they had to vote on it today, would they change their vote?

5. Is the sales tax money destined for the general fund?

6. Would any part of the sales tax money be used to pay down the wastewater treatment plant loan (WWTP)?

7. When the city council approved the people for the Oversight Committee why did they settle on three of the five that had already served in government positions?

8. Kelly Schellong is Chair of the City 1% Sales Tax Oversight Committee. She also served on the City Council from 2006 to 2014. In that time, she approved the doubling of the WWTP price tag from $20 million to over $40 million without asking one question. Is this the right person to Chair the Oversight Committee?

In the last year, new information has become evident that make it seem that the reasons for increasing the city sales tax may be moot.

As we delve into this subject Born Free But Taxed to Death, we hope to uncover details generally unknown to the public before now.