I'm writing to support Goleta's Measure B that will bring Goleta over $10 million dollars of annually by raising its sales tax one cent for every dollar of purchased. This would bring Goleta's sales tax in line with the 8.75 percent or higher charged in most local cities — Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Carpinteria, Lompoc, etc.
Opponents have argued that instead, Goleta should just stop letting S.B. County take half of Goleta's property taxes and a third of our sales taxes. This happens under the so called "Revenue Neutrality Agreement" (RNA) that the county required to approve Goleta's cityhood.
What some don't understand or accept is that the RNA agreement is not going away. Every one of Goleta City Council's attempts to negotiate an end to this agreement has failed. Virtually all the lawyers have agreed that a legal action to overturn the agreement would fail and simply result in Goleta incurring significant legal expenses.