Thanks for your post. Certainly not an easy decision. This is very much a case of choosing between two evils. The bottom line is that the following items remain true, no matter how you slice it, as displayed in Councilman Ahmad’s editorial:

1. San Carlos receives one of the lowest amounts (shares) of property tax in the county

2. Revenues from property and sales taxes do not cover the costs of public safety

3. San Carlos has no “local” revenue sources to fund local priorities

Some of those items you mentioned in your post such as the Youth Center have severely cut back hours and are already running on a minimum staff. Additionally, with the closure of the Kiwanis building at Burton Park, the Youth Center has been expected to pick up the slack with a limited staff. With regard to the Senior Center, I am not sure of the staffing levels there, but I am not sure that is the right venue to cut staff.

Finally, four of the five city council member fully support the measure. I have come to respect all four of those individuals as very bright and innovative leaders. There is a reason they are supporting this measure. They have spent more time in the trenches with this issue and they will all tell you that we simply do not have another viable option other than massive cuts, which will impact the city in a variety of ways. All of this being said, I think your point about San Carlos starting projects on grants, rather than a sustainable revenue stream is a fair point. Unfortunately, now we are now in a position where tough choices need to be made on some of those items. Believe me, I don’t want to see the sales tax go up any higher than it already is, however, I do not want to see any more of our city services cut.

We have a youth center, a senior center, and a special needs program. How many city employees are required to run these programs and what are their salaries?

How many of our young people really use the Youth Center? It was built to keep young people off the street. Where are a majority of young people hanging out? The answer is NOT at the Youth Center.

Many of the City programs were started with funding from grants rather than sustainable dollars.

For years the city paid for the Healthy Cities Tutoring Program. I think it is a worthy program but why was our city government paying for an educational program? Shouldn’t this have been a school district program rather than a city run program?

The city also paid for a shuttle for years. What a ridiculous use of tax payer funds.

I realize that the Chamber of Commerce endorsed this measure but did they really have good input from the store owners? The Chamber board of directors must not adequately represent the retail business of this community. This tax increase will be devasting to local business. Good Sage (on South Laurel) just went out of business becoming another number on the long list of retail stores that could not make ends meet in our fair city. Do our city officials know how many stores and small restaurants are struggling to make it in San Carlos?

Bob, I’m surprised you would endorse this measure. Did you really do your homework?

Next stop by the City Mangers office and tell him that you know how to reduce all the wasteful spending that the City of San Carlos does. Also let him no that all the employees should take a pay cut because that what you would do.Make sure you let him know that you are an expert in Government Finances and know how to squeeze water out of a Rock. Be sure to tell him you are a friend of Matt Grocott because I here that he is a Staff Favorite.
Call their bluff because you know they are hiding money in the basement for a rainy day.

Now you should feel pretty good about your self so go spend the rest of the day patting yourself on the back at Starbucks.

Now come on back to this blog and post what happened. But please your real name so we can buy you a cup of coffee.

The City of San Carlos does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

City Manager Mark Weiss earned more than $212,000.00 in 2008, almost as much as the mayor of much larger San Jose. Assistant City Manager Brian Moura made more than $191,000.00 and the Parks superindent and recreation director topped $173,000.00, and this is only a small example of the over spending.

Managers aren’t alone in pulling in these out of line salaries. A maintenance worker made $72,000.00 and a parks administrative assistamt made $66,000.00. A patrol officer, by earning $61,000.00 in overtime, made more than $160,000.00, almost as much as the police chief.

These and other records obtained from the city earlier this year, make it crystal clear that San Carlos is out of control with it’s spending.

No on Measure “U”. Don’t give the vultures any more to squander away.

The majority of San Carlos city workers are overpaid. I’ve talked to a few that would be OK with a 5% pay cut as they realize that there is way to much sand bagging that goes on with a lot of city employees.

The party is over, and raising the sales tax is just not the right thing to do.

The poster indicates that a someone looking to purchase a fancy new bbq may consider going to SM to purchase instead of San Carlos due to the passage of Measure U and the sale tax increase. Really? If this is the logic we are dealing with I hope most voters in San Carlos can see how absurd this notion really is. Let’s suppose that new bbq costs $500. The cost difference with the sales tax increase from Measure U is a whopping $2.50. I’m sorry these folks are going to burn through most of that in gas going to the home depot off of 92 in SM.

The bottomline with Measure U is that the benefits far outweigh the burdens. In fact, the burdens are almost negligible. Protect our already dwindling city services and vote YES on Measure U.