San Rafael Sales Tax Rate Jumps to 9 Percent – Do You Care?

In the Nov. 6, 2012 election, Marin County voters overwhelmingly backed a countywide quarter-cent sales tax increase, the latest resounding show of support for Marin's parks, open space and farmlands that dominate the county's geography.

Five months later, that tax hike kicks in this week, sending sales tax rates up to 9 percent in San Rafael, Fairfax and Novato and to 8.5 percent in the rest of the county.

San Rafael is also in the midst of exploring the possibility of extending its own half-cent sales tax, which voters approved as Measure S in 2005. That tax, which generates more than $6.5 million annually and funds elements of city services including police, fire, public works and library, expires in 2016 and will need voter approval in either 2013 or 2015 to be continued, according to city officials.

Most San Rafael voters will already be voting on another tax measure this year — San Rafael City Schools is holding a special spring mail-in election asking voters to renew a 24-year-old parcel tax.

The countywide quarter-cent sales tax hike is expected to raise approximately $10 million a year and was placed on the ballot by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in August 2012 after a lengthy rollout.

Sixty-five percent ($6.5 million) of the revenue will be used to protect or restore natural resources and maintain county parks and open space preserves.

Twenty percent, or $2 million, goes toward preserving farmland and ranches from development and subdivision, and 15 percent ($1.5 million) would be directed to municipalities and special districts to manage their parks, open space preserves and recreation programs and reduce wildfire risk.

A small portion of the tax would go toward protecting properties along the Bay from development and to acquire strategic properties as a wildlife corridor, according to parks officials.

California's base sales tax rate is 7.5 percent. In 2004, Marin voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for transportation projects. San Rafael voters passed the half-cent hike of Measure S in 2005. Three years later, Marin voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax hike to pay for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) train and pushing the countywide rate to 8.25 percent and the San Rafael rate to 8.75 percent.

Which brings us to April 2013. The sales tax rate in San Rafael is now 9 percent.

Do you care? Are your sales tax dollars being well spent? Is 9 percent too high? What sales tax rate would be too high? Tell us in the Comments below.

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