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Tracey Ruiz
Novato Council Bets Big on Measure M
The Novato City Council’s approval of the Measure M sales tax increase, without including a sunset clause, is the biggest financial mistake of the relatively new council and city manager.
A sunset clause is the most effective way to hold our local government accountable for the additional $10 million that will go into the city’s unrestricted general fund, annually.
The city’s own polling results showed more voter support for the .75% sales tax increase with an 8-year sunset.
The council naively asks voters to ignore Novato’s history of poor financial decision-making, incomplete audits, a scathing civil grand jury report, and the optics from years of bad press.
The new city manager urged the council to approve the ballot language as drafted, without a sunset. Council’s quick acceptance and scripted speeches appeared to disregard the fiduciary duty to a larger percentage of voters.
A consensus approach by Novato’s council would have been inclusive of voters on both sides. The absence of a sunset clause kick-started a No on M campaign, which is now endorsed by the Marin IJ Editorial Board and the Marin’s Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers.
Proponents of Measure M tell us not to look at past mistakes because this new council intends to fix the problems. Novato’s good intentions have been the path to deficit spending. Voters want unbiased oversight, not more self-policing.
An 8-10 year sunset clause brings true financial oversight back to taxpayers because it’s strictly based on actual performance. It doesn’t rely on who is on the council or who is the city manager. It would rebuild the city’s broken trust with taxpayers and stop the blame game of past councils and managers.
When the Novato council decided it could sell Measure M without the votes of “Team Sunset,” it made a big and unnecessary gamble.
Tracey Ruiz
Co-Founder, NoNovatoTax.com