Editorial Here are a few of the new taxes in Mayor Newsom’s no-new-taxes budget.
The cost of sending your kid to a city day camp will jump 35 percent. The cost of after-school latchkey programs will go up 112 percent. It will cost a dollar more to swim in a public pool. Annual swim passes for seniors and people with economic needs will rise by $25. And that’s on top of the Muni fare hike. Fines, fees and licenses will go up a staggering 41 percent.
In other words, poor people who use city services will see their taxes — that is, the cost of using city services — go up significantly. But rich people, big business, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., property owners — they won’t pay anything more at all. (Of course, if you own a small tatoo parlor, your city fees will go up 1,200 percent.)
This is one of the essential lies of the Newsom budget. It’s not revenue-neutral at all; it just raises taxes on the poor.
It’s also not a budget that shares the economic pain fairly.