Parks Tax Bad for Burlingame

In addition to a $43 million infrastructure bond and a $240 million San Mateo Union High School District Bond that will be on the November 2006 ballot, Burlingame residents will be asked this fall to also approve a countywide, 1/8-cent sales tax to fund county and city parks.

The measure, to be placed on the ballot by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, may bring in around $16 million dollars a year. According to the ballot language, 52 percent will be divided among the 20 county cities, 42 percent will go to the county government itself and the remaining 6 percent will be shared among three local parks districts.

Burlingame's annual share will be approximately $163,404 should the measure pass, as the allocation is based on city population. Our neighbor to the west, Hillsborough, will get around $112,902 a year.

But this is where this poorly crafted measure breaks down. Hillsborough produces very little sales tax. In fact, the only sales tax produced in Hillsborough is largely through private transactions. This is due to the fact that Hillsborough has, by policy, prevented commercial activity in that community just as Portola Valley has done.

Burlingame residents, however, enjoy diverse and active business districts and the community is host to a large auto row which generates tremendous sales tax, as well as our hotels on the Bay front.

In fact, in the second quarter of 2005, Burlingame generated a total of $210,694,000 in total taxable sales, compared to that of Hillsborough which generated only $1,443,000 or about 1.5 percent of Burlingame's total. Yet, under the formula for the Parks Tax worked out by the San Mateo County leadership, Hillsborough's allocation of this new sales tax is not that much lower than Burlingame's.

In fact, Burlingame generates the fourth highest amount of taxable sales in San Mateo County, but because the allocation of this new sales tax funding will be based on the number of people in each community, Burlingame's piece of the proverbial pie will be in the mid to lower end of the scale.

This tax is a bad deal for Burlingame under the proposed formula. In fact, Burlingame will end up subsidizing the parks facilities of our neighbors.

Thus far, city officials have not weighed in on this issue but hopefully they will soon. This tax really only benefits the county government and the communities with larger populations such as Daly City or those with little to no commercial activity like Hillsborough and Portola Valley.

Let's hear from our local leaders on this issue.

- Written by politicalblunder

Comments

[fred]

So the affluent people of Hillsborough don't contribute to the sales tax revenue? Don't they make a considerable amount of taxable purchases in Burlingame? Can't Burlingame residents access Hillsborough parks and vice versa?

This goes back to the issue I have presented in the past that Burlingame draws a large amount of out of town customers to their businesses. Burlingame is part of a larger community and draws favorably from it's neighbors.

The complaint/problem is we collect too much tax revenue for too small a population, well that is an envible position. How did Burlingame get into that position? Making money off of non-residents.

****

I think having the freeway overpass on a thin street like Poplar which has many schools is an example of closed borders and improper planning. Traffic will be led to downtown San Mateo not downtown Burlingame. Peninsula is wide, it was designed to withstand freeway traffic. Peninsula Ave should be a gateway to Burlingame just like Broadway. Of the three proposed plans one did not destroy any residences and only a few commercial buildings right along the freeway were removed. Even that could have been modified.

This city is part of a bigger picture. We, as a city, need to think in those terms.

Nope, too much spillover into neighborhood sidestreets, lots of people cutting through fast to get to the freeway.

As one directly affected already by people headed northbound, and more than our fair share of racers, I would be opposed. We don't need another "gateway," unless it's a parklike one, that leads bicycles and pedestrians over the freeway to the bay. Now that would be novel, eh?

People manage to find their way to Burlingame, just fine. By the way, if we're talking safety, Poplar could be made vastly safer with an inexpensive median strip, like the one proposed a few years ago. It doesn't involve bulldozing or major reconstruction.

Fred,

Hillsborough folks probably do make taxable purchases in Burlingame but do so because they do not want businesses in their town. Why should they then reap the benefits without any of the detriments?

And that dynamic still does not solve the allocation dispairty between Burlingame and many of its neighbors.

We have many great commercial assets and have worked to benefit from them. As someone who usually advocates for Burlingame business development, would you agree that those assets should be for the benefit of Burlingame residents?

[fred]

Well, I agree I don't understand the figures when compared to Burlingame. Hillsborough has about one quarter the population of Burlingame so wouldn't they receive one quarter of the funds? As far as Portola goes, I use their public parks often. They and Woodside have some of the best hiking trails around.

Burlingame reaps, Hillsborough reaps, it is a symbiotic relationship, a close one at that.

*******

There are ways to prevent or deter the spillover and keep traffic where the city wants it. But there is no way to make Poplar (too skinny and three schools directly on the road before San Mateo Drive) the same alternative as Peninsula.

Fred, you forget Washington School, which has very young children., plus loads more pedestrians in this area. Deterence costs lots of money, whether its in the way of physical barriers, more police, or both. That is why there has been very little done in the way of traffic calming at all, in any neighborhood. People have to go fight for years, just to get stop signs- Ask anyone who has tried. I have.

[fred]

Washington is two streets over from Peninsula, Poplar has three schools directly on the street.

Physical barriers could be negotiated as part of the approval with Caltrans. Get it added to the project, seems workable.