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Portola Valley voters renew utility taxes

by Dave Boyce

In choosing to renew Portola Valley's two-part utility users tax for the fifth time, voters showed enthusiastic support for not raising the tax, strong support for the tax's open-space element, and significant support for raising the appropriations limit so the town could collect revenues to help pay the town's operational expenses.

Measure P, approved by 82 percent of voters, renews the tax for four years at its current rate: 4.5 percent.

Measure Q, approved by 58 percent, increases the town's appropriations limit so the town can collect and spend the revenue.

And Measure R, approved by 64 percent, renews the 2 percent tax for open space for four years.

The taxes are levied on energy, water, and telephone bills for residences and businesses.

The results seem to reflect efforts to kill the tax. That may explain the heavy vote for Measure P; had it failed the tax would have jumped from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in July 2010.

If Measure Q (raising the appropriations limit) had failed, P and R would have been moot. If Q and P had passed and R failed, open-space funding would have ended. State law makes such linkages unavoidable, town officials have said.

The utility taxes, totally 6.5 percent, raise about $250 a year from each residence. Revenues are split, with 70 percent going toward expenses such as police services and road maintenance, and 30 percent set aside for the purchase of open space.

The measures had opposition — from about 80 households, said resident and former town treasurer Ed Wells, who helped lead the effort. Their recommendations: approve Measure P to keep the tax at 4.5 percent; defeat Q to stop collecting revenues for operational expenses; and vote your heart on R, the open-space element and a strong value in this semi-rural and quiet town. The outcomes seem to reflect that set of priorities.

"I think the 42 percent (opposition on Measure Q) was a very, very good showing," Mr. Wells said in an interview. "We didn't get run over."

The campaign could point to two successes, Mr. Wells said. Crafting ballot arguments that created "real opposition" to the measures, and informing voters on the "peculiar" linkage and the need to defeat Measure Q. "Our total focus was on Q because that was the trigger mechanism for the three ballot measures," Mr. Wells said.

"Ed Wells," Councilman Steve Toben said, "concentrated his fire on Q, so it's not surprising to me." But, he added, a tax measure that gets a 58 percent majority is "something you rarely see" and "impressive in this day and age."

"Taxes are not popular on any ballot," Mr. Toben continued, "(and with) the fraying of public finance in California, this is one area where we can control our own destiny. Like other cities, we're looking out for our community assets, and I think that's the message here."

With 3,182 registered voters in Portola Valley and 1,179 ballots cast, the town had a 37 percent turnout, well above the county's 26 percent rate, according to Elections Office estimates.