This November, Marin voters face a tax tsunami. The marquee election is the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority’s $20 billion nine-county regional bond to fund 17,000 new workforce homes. It’s accompanied by multiple municipal and school-related tax measures.
For organizers of each proposal, I would like to suggest several ways you can enable voters to make well-informed ballot-measure decisions. Start voter education eight months prior to the election. That’s well before jurisdictions seeking a tax increase or extension finalize their measure.
It’s when board members and senior staff must meet live voters by making the rounds of Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, labor unions and taxpayer groups, as well as neighborhood and homeowner associations. However worthy the cause, those pushing for tax increases need to understand where their voters are coming from. Professional polling is useful, but it shouldn’t be the exclusive method to learn popular sentiment.
Governing board members should spend personal time going door-to-door and interacting with their constituents. They may not like what they learn but they need to hear it before making final decisions on the tax’s amount and its scope. If taxing authorities haven’t completed those steps by now, it’s too late.
It may be smarter to do it right and postpone their measure until 2026. Tax advocates should work with past opponents to fashion a compromise. That old lesson is difficult for some to accept.
Those fol.