Measure A sales tax was approved by voters, and proponents are celebrating their win. The five-eighths cent tax aims to maintain $330 million in annual funding for Santa Clara County’s medical system over the next 10 years, a shortfall caused by federal cuts in Medicaid.
Proponents, enjoy your success at the ballot box because now your hard work begins: keeping your promises.
One of the strongest objections to Measure A was that it was a “general” tax instead of a “special purpose” tax. The reason Measure A wasn’t a special purpose tax was that special purpose taxes require a 2/3 majority of the vote to pass. General purpose taxes only need a simple majority.
Taxpayers’ fears about county officials mismanaging money aren’t misplaced.
Some of you may remember a few years ago when Jean McCorquodale, a county grant writer and wife of former county supervisor and state senator Dan McCorquodale, was given a one-million-dollar advance to write a history of Santa Clara County for the county archives. Two years late, Jean McCorquodale delivered a cut-and-paste plagiarized from Wikipedia.
Later, other inconvenient details leaked out. The county routed the contract to McCorquodale instead of putting it out to bid, the Mercury reported, and her invoices raised questions. McCorquodale might be an historian, but she was a donor to one of the project’s big proponents: former supervisor Ken Yeager.
Now, you would think the county would demand its money back, or that indefatigable foe of civic malfeasance, DA Jeff Rosen, would be convening a grand jury to look into county procurement operations. You would be wrong.
Then-county executive Jeff Smith was “shocked” and “concerned.” Then-county counsel James Williams said that it would cost more to go to court than the county could get. When one of our staff asked County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg about the scandal, her answer was something about “moving on.”
It’s nice to be able to “move on” from flushing one million dollars of other people’s money down the toilet.
Now, you can bet taxpayers will be hopping mad if a few years from now they find out that Measure A revenue is going for, say, Sheriff’s department building renovations or boosting county pension funds. Or another writing project.
Out of respect to our taxpayers, the county needs go above and beyond and be actively accountable and transparent. We don’t want reports on the use of this money in two years. We want it quarterly, and online reports. We want active, independent oversight that happens in the light of day.
The ball is in the county’s court. Are they going to knock it out of the park or swing and miss?
We invite any of the Supervisors, as well as County Executive Williams, to tell our readers how they will guarantee that Measure A money is being used for health care and only health care.
Just email editor@svvoice.com.
