In Support of Measure V V for San Leandro

-

 


I know many in San Leandro have mixed feelings about Measure V V, but I hope you'll join me in supporting it. Here is a letter I sent to the San Leandro Times in favor of V V.
Dear Editor -
These are truly challenging times. Many of us have lost our jobs or had to take pay cuts, businesses have permanently closed, students, parents and teachers are adjusting to distant learning, more San Leandrans than ever are relying on local food pantries to feed their families, and many in the community want to see significant reforms undertaken in our police department.
In that sense, it's a terrible time to ask voters to approve a tax measure. But it’s also a terrible time for San Leandro to go into a downward spiral.
This is a real risk. Covid-19 has dealt a sudden, direct hit on city finances. It is critical that we maintain City services and programs that are helping San Leandrans stay safe and survive the pandemic. This is why I am supporting Measure V V.
Measure V V is not an ongoing property tax. Most San Leandrans in any given year will not pay the tax as it is collected one time only, when property is bought/sold. Plus, corporations and large businesses will pay the largest assessments, not small business owners and homeowners.
The tax, called a real property transfer tax, is already on the books. San Leandro has the lowest real property transfer tax among eligible cities in Alameda County. It has not been raised in 27 years. Even with Measure V V, San Leandro’s tax will remain among the lowest in the County.
All the funds raised by Measure V V will stay in San Leandro to support city services vital to our quality of life. Please join me in voting Yes on Measure V V.
Location: San Leandro, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking Back: Measure B Transformed San Leandro Public Schools

-
Image
Our tax dollars can make a real difference in the lives of our children and prosperity of a community. Twelve years ago San Leandro High School was grossly overcrowded leading to discipline problems and undermining academic performance, no theater in the school district existed for student performances, and many restrooms at schools were in such poor condition that the students would not use them. That all changed in August 2006 when the School Board voted to place Measure  B on the ballot. The largest school construction bond in San Leandro’s history, Measure B received overwhelming support and led to the physical transformation of San Leandro public school (combined with the passage of two subsequent bond measures and one earlier measure). With better public schools, San Leandro has become a more desirable city to live, helping attract and retain families who previously would have never moved to San Leandro or moved away when the children were in middle school. Here is a
Read more

How Juan Gonzalez won the San Leandro Mayor's office at the end of the counting of votes

-
Image
On November 18, 2022, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters released the vote count for nearly all votes cast in the November 2022 general election. After being behind for the entire vote count, Juan Gonzalez effectively won the race.  How did this happen? First, from election night through 11/17, the Registrar had reported a total of 13,746 first choice ballots in the Mayor's race. On 11/18, the number of votes reported increased by 6,436 to 20,185 total votes. That was a nearly 47% jump in the reported votes. Another way of looking at the data is that prior to 11/18, all previous vote counts released by the Registrar did not include roughly one-third of the votes that were cast in the race. Second, Gonzalez  decisively took the lead in the the first choice ballots that were released by the Registrar on 11/18. Gonzalez took these votes by 39% to 33% margin. With the exception of the first vote count released by the Registrar on election night right after the polls closed when Br
Read more

San Leandro Celebrates New School Opening & Completion of Significant Renovation Work

-
Image
San Leandro students can now attend in my opinion the finest alternative high school in the SF Bay Area. The new Lincoln High School was dedicated this week. I was honored to to speak at the dedication ceremony. Located next to Cherry Grove Park and San Leandro Adult School, Lincoln High School consists of twelve standard classrooms, a multi-purpose room, a culinary arts classroom with multiple ovens and kitchen setup, a science lab, and a fabrication lab for learning the skills and techniques used in building construction.  Approximately 400 students will attend the new high school, almost tripling the capacity of the previous campus (which consisted of portable classrooms on an asphalt parking lot in an industrial part of San Leandro).  In addition to officially opening the new Lincoln High School, the school district also celebrated the completion of significant renovation and modernization projects at Bancroft Middle School. As chairperson of the Measure N bond campaign committee t
Read more