You're not imagining it: Santa Cruz County's roads are crumbling, our parks are falling into disrepair, and we're dangerously short-staffed. The result is that mountain residents are more likely to lose their road and be trapped in a disaster while all county residents have to suffer long wait times to access county services ranging from mental health check ups to building permit approvals. This is a public safety issue for the whole county. However, rural, disadvantaged, and low-income residents inevitably suffer the most.

What caused this? Santa Cruz County has been chronically underfunded for the last 45 years, living under a property tax distribution formula that harms our community. The County receives only 13.5 cents of every property tax dollar that is paid. The average that counties keep statewide is 20 cents (or 20%). This formula is set by California state law that went into effect after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. This petition is calling for a new formula that gives Santa Cruz County a higher percentage of the property taxes currently collected. It is NOT calling for an increase in property taxes.

If the formula is not adjusted soon Santa Cruz County infrastructure will reach the point of no return. We had over 200 storm damage sites in 2023 and one reason for this is that aging infrastructure is more vulnerable to intense storms.

Our county workforce is also at risk - many departments are seeing positions go unfilled because better-funded, neighboring counties can pay higher salaries and out-compete Santa Cruz. When positions stay vacant, existing employees shoulder a higher workload. The strain of mandatory overtime is leading to high turnover in affected departments.

New local sales taxes alone cannot provide enough funding to fix the problems caused by decades of deferred maintenance. A 1/2 cent sales tax (0.5%) generates about $9 million a year for the County. But if Santa Cruz County just received the statewide average of 20% of its property taxes it would generate around $70 million a year. County Public Works estimates that the deferred maintenance on county roads and culverts is approaching $1 billion.

The property tax formula is not the fault of local residents or local governments but was created by the California State Legislature and can only be fixed by the California State Legislature (or a statewide ballot initiative). Santa Cruz County's representatives in the State Legislature are: State Senator John Laird and Assemblymembers Dawn Addis, Gail Pellerin, and Robert Rivas. This year Robert Rivas was promoted to Speaker of the Assembly. The collective influence of these representatives makes this the best opportunity Santa Cruz County has to get the funding formula changed.

All of our state representatives are running for re-election in 2024 and need to hear that this is an issue Santa Cruz County residents want to see action on.

On October 17th, 2023 the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution finding that "the current property tax apportionment law of the State of California is inadequate and unsustainable for the County of Santa Cruz" and requesting our representatives in the State Legislature "do everything possible to change [it]."

http://santacruzcountyca.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=None&MeetingID=1990&MediaPosition=2036.735&ID=15173&CssClass=

This is your opportunity to support the cause and call for change.