League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	San Francisco County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Proposition O Replacing the Emergency Response Fee with an Access Line Tax and Revising the Telephone Users Tax City of San Francisco Ordinance - Majority Approval Required Pass: 208,044 / 66.74% Yes votes ...... 103,679 / 33.26% No votes See Also: Index of all Propositions

Arguments For Proposition O

Arguments Against Proposition O

SAVE 9-1-1. NO NEW TAXES. VOTE YES ON O What do you do in an emergency? You dial 911. Emergency response is the most important service our city government provides. Today, it's our 911 system that faces an emergency. A recent court ruling has jeopardized the funding source that San Francisco uses to provide 911 services. At risk is San Francisco's Emergency Response Fee, created after the tragic 1993 shootings at 101 California Street. The Emergency Response Fee is the lifeline for our 911 service. It has enabled San Francisco to centralize 911 Police, Fire and EMS dispatch functions and dramatically improve our ability to respond to life-threatening events, natural disasters and public safety emergencies. We cannot afford to lose it. Voting YES on Proposition O: Rescues our emergency response system by repealing the Emergency Response Fee and replacing it with a safer Access Line Tax. Does not increase costs to any user Maintains the low-income user exemptions in the current Emergency Response Fee Updates and modernizes our antiquated telephone users tax, leaving it at its current level and continuing to exempt residential users. San Franciscans are coming together to support Proposition O Yes on O is strongly supported by San Francisco Firefighters, San Francisco Police Officers, Mayor Newsom and entire Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Democratic Party and Republican Party, business, labor organizations, neighborhood groups and San Francisco small business owners. Now, it's up to all of us to vote YES on O, to save 911 services with no new taxes. Mayor Gavin Newsom Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin District Attorney Kamala Harris Sheriff Michael Hennessey San Francisco Firefighers Association San Francisco Police Officers Association San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Association San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) Rebuttal to Arguments For In 2005, a coalition of San Francisco's business groups released a study which found that on a per-capita basis, "San Franciscans paid roughly $461 in governmental fees in 2004, which is more than double that of neighboring San Jose's per capita figure of $222 and almost triple Honolulu's $156 per capita, which like San Francisco combines city and county government." Since then of course, fees paid by San Franciscans have risen dramatically. Let's not give government a new authority to tax our Internet use! A fee is a payment for a service rendered to the person paying the fee. The "Emergency Response Fee" never met this definition, therefore it has always been a tax. Proponents of Proposition O are trying to have it both ways. If they admit it was a tax all along, then it should have been approved by the voters in order to be levied + and that approval was never obtained. If they say it wasn't a tax before, then making it a tax now puts the lie to their claim of "no new taxes." Call a spade a spade, and a tax, a tax! Please have compassion for working people and families trying to make ends meet. For residents of limited means, every penny counts. Vote NO on O and send this testament to government greed to the circular file! Starchild, Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco/ Steering Committee Member, San Francisco Taxpayers Union* Phil Berg, Libertarian candidate for Congress For identification purposes only; author is signing as an individual and not on behalf of an organization.

For 15 years, San Francisco City Hall has been taxing your telephone usage and calling it a fee. They did this in order to collect the money without seeking voter approval, which is required to impose a tax. Recently however, a court ruling put such duplicitously named "fees" in legal jeopardy. But instead of apologizing, or scheduling a vote to refund the extra money you've been wrongfully charged on your phone bill for the past decade and a half, the politicians want voters to reward their dishonest maneuver by affirming that this confiscation is the tax it was all along rather than a fee, thus protecting their ability to keep charging you. Measure O soothingly reassures us that "Future increases should be limited to the inflation rate." However the use of "should" rather than "shall" means there actually is no limitation on future increases. Even this wasn't enough to sate the government's greed. A second provision in Measure O would for the first time allow them to tax Internet-based telephone services, and even new technologies that haven't been invented yet. I am not arguing against emergency services. I am saying find other sources of funding to pay for these services which do not involve taking more money out of the pockets of ordinary working people. For instance, according to the City Budget Analyst, San Francisco spends an estimated $11.4 million a year arresting and prosecuting prostitutes and their clients for consensual sex between adults, contrary to the tolerant, sex-positive values of San Franciscans, and despite the fact that San Francisco juries regularly refuse to convict individuals charged with prostitution. Expenditures like that could be better put toward funding emergency services. Starchild Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco Steering Committee Member, San Francisco Taxpayers Union* For identification purposes only; author is signing as an individual and not on behalf of an organization. Rebuttal to Arguments Against Opponents of Proposition O would have you put our emergency response system at risk. That's a risk San Franciscans can't afford to take. That's why our front-line public safety officials and firstresponders, including the San Francisco Firefighters, San Francisco Police Officers, San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs, Sheriff Michael Hennessey and District Attorney Kamala Harris strongly support Proposition O. These are the facts about Prop O: Proposition O replaces our current Emergency Response Fee - it is NOT a new cost Proposition O is set at the exact same levels as the current fee - and includes the exact same low-income user exemptions Proposition O is the only guarantee we have that vital emergency and other services will not face drastic cuts At the same time that Proposition O secures our emergency funding, it also updates our Telephone Users Tax. Residential phones are exempt from this tax. Proposition O leaves the current tax rate unchanged. Thirty-three California cities have passed a similar update to reflect changes in telecommunications since the 1960's. It is time for San Francisco to approve a similar update. Please join the diverse coalition of San Franciscans - including the San Francisco Democratic and Republican Parties, Mayor Gavin Newsom and the entire Board of Supervisors, business, labor and neighborhood groups, and vote YES on Prop O. Mayor Gavin Newsom Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin District Attorney Kamala Harris Sheriff Michael Hennessey San Francisco Firefighters Association San Francisco Police Officers Association San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Association San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) Public Defender Jeff Adachi