r/Fremont • u/CJRoses • 20d ago
11% sales tax in Fremont?? Another look at the November transit tax.
Fremont sales tax proposed to go from 10.25% to 10.75% - let's take a look.
The labor costs of Bay Area transit agencies don't make sense when agencies claim they are broke and then want regressive taxes, which disproportionately impact the poor, to underwrite the compensation. Below you will see the Muni cost structure - but you could pick any Bay Area transit agency and will get to BART later.
I guess you could say "isn't great to see transit workers getting paid like doctors and lawyers." But by every measure these cost structures are not sustainable and are running transit into the ground. Voting yes on the transit tax is further underwriting these comp packages - of course you may agree with it, but the issue here is transparency. What is also astonishing about Muni is its employees have a 26% absentee rate ie Muni workers are out every fourth day on average.
Make any of this make sense.
•
u/Potential_Two_2190 20d ago
public transit failing also disproportionately impacts the poor
•
•
u/rocpilehardasfuk 19d ago
Then the poor should grow a brain and vote for it.
•
u/chrysostomos_1 19d ago
Why would you say that 😐
•
u/rocpilehardasfuk 19d ago
I'm tired of the poor people nationally voting against their interests. There's a reason millions of Latino men voted to get fucked over financially
•
u/chrysostomos_1 19d ago
It's not as simple as that. The current administration ended tax on tips and overtime and eliminated tax on SS for most working class people. Most working class people are socially conservative and so is the current administration. The base of the democratic party seems to show more interest in helping teenagers change their sex than in helping the working class improve their lives.
•
•
u/SavedByTech 19d ago
Vote no on new taxes and require our elected officials to begin managing better.
•
u/thetigersears 19d ago
Better yet, why don't you run for office and manage better?
•
u/SavedByTech 19d ago
It's an option being considered in the next 10-20 years. My proposed approach would be materially different from what our neighbors are.used to (being from the private sector) that I'm not sure people would be attracted to the platform.
It's something I am considering.
•
u/samarijackfan 19d ago
You pay higher sales taxes because property owners have successfully put the cost of running your city and county burden on you. Prop 13 is the gift to corporations and the wealthy to make sure you pay more than property owners.
It was touted as a way for grandma to not get kicked out of her home because property tax increases would force her out and the same benefit applies to all California property owners. It was wildly successful and has helped millions stay in their homes (some would say locked them in because they don't want to move which would trigger higher property taxes on their new home)
Now instead of abundance thinking, people scream for austerity for themselves. Cut public transit, cut library hours, cut road maintenance, cut park maintences, close schools, add toll lanes, raise permit fees, cut salaries, layoff government workers and make everything about our city and county worse. Basically undo all the good work the government accomplished in the 50s. How dare we ask for such things.
All because we are convinced (propagandized) we can't make corporations or wealthy people pay more taxes because they will leave.
•
•
u/therealgariac 19d ago
As an occasional user of SF Muni, you don't have much company if you tag in (excluding the stations). SF Muni has a system where you don't tag in if you pay a month pass. Hey that would slow down the system with everyone showing they paid. The losses have to be huge.
Just say no to this tax and another solution will be found.
•
•
•
•
u/sakuramokona 19d ago
Quick question why is every post you make screaming being dead set that there is gross misuse of funding for bart due to wages in various bay area cities? Are you saying if the wages are correct bart can support themselves with no more funding? BART failing will make the traffic much worse in general. BART pre covid was uniquely able to fund themselves unlike other public transportation. Ridership has gone up but it is not anywhere what it used to be. I do agree Fremont sales tax is pretty high but that is a different argument and I'm not sure you're even in Fremont.
•
u/Acefr 19d ago
Because asking for more tax money does not solve BART's problem. BART is run poorly and inefficiently. I recently took BART from Fremont to the airport, and a lady tried to follow me through the gate with her bike to evade the fare, yet the staff at the booth totally ignored her and let her do it. I had to push her bicycle out and ask her not to follow me. Minutes later, she was back on the platform, probably following another passenger. It is waste like this making BART lose money. Asking for more money is like putting water into a leaky bucket. No matter how much you fill it, it will never be enough.
•
u/CJRoses 19d ago
I am saying these transit agencies need to restructure before asking again and again for more money. PART of the solution is renegotiating labor contracts. BART ridership tanked (Covid) and kept raising labor costs irresponsibly - will bring the receipts on this. You cant just keep asking for more and more money and reform nothing. And the whole BART/Caltrain will shut down without this tax is false - there are plenty of other options to fund including redirecting funds from failed capital transit projects.
•
u/aBayAreaGuy 19d ago
BART continued to ask for more funding pre pandemic as well. It’s a never ending parade of funding requests. Why should we continue footing the bill? I’m not convinced BART will simply collapse if a tax increase isn’t approved. If BART is that critical, the state won’t let it fail and will pump into it. Enough is enough.
•
•
u/Darth-Cholo 19d ago
Always vote no to extra taxes no matter how small they seem. Quarter percent here, half a percent there and it all ads up. Make these orgs work within their budgets. If not, then fire them and find somebody who will. Instead they just beg for money and we bail them out.
•
•
u/haberdasherystandard 16d ago
I'm a teacher and clearly in the wrong profession. I could actually take a day off.
•
u/GanjaKing_420 19d ago
Recall Raj and the City council if any additional taxes pass! Enough is enough.
•
u/NextBuilder2880 19d ago
I worked for a public transit agency. An agency charges under $3 for your ride that actually costs $8+. Sure, go out to dinner and subsidize someone else’s transportation. It is redistribution of wealth plain and simple. Salaries are inflated and incompetence is the norm. How many tax increases have there been in the last 20 years? To support light rail trains that are empty almost all day and night.
•
u/FinFreedomCountdown 20d ago
And the level of service is horrible. Japan has privatized transit and it’s so much cleaner.
Bart and Muni cater to the homeless and drug addicts so we can’t even use it although it’s funded by our taxes.
•
u/mad_method_man 19d ago
then start by repealing the chicken tax, so we get some proper light trucks over these pavement princesses
•
u/Mountain_Slip_7721 19d ago
if you halved those salaries you might save $3 million a year...not sure itd make much difference to sustainability.
Muni absentee rate horrible, agree
•
19d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
•
u/Exorcism1991 19d ago
well guess what, that 20% is included in the original price. sales tax is completely regressive! all it does is negatively impacting poorer people who need to buy basic goods. grow up, and stop supporting useless taxes.
•
u/Inevitable-Assist531 19d ago
Has there ever been a tax increase that the good people of Alameda County have not approved?