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Posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 - 05:06 pm:   

CAMPAIGN 2006: San Mateo County’s Measure A
16,000 acres of parkland need quite a bit of attention. Sales tax increase would raise millions for improvements.

Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, October 13, 2006

State Senatorial District 8 Candidate Michael Skipakevich supports the 1/8 cents sales tax increase and recommends that all San Mateo County voters to Vote YES on Measure-A. Our San Mateo County communities have increasingly realized that nature is not simply to be used or passively appreciated, but that we are all part of the natural world and that our earth's natural resources have inherent value. Through sound decision making, conservation practices, and wise land usage we can help sustain and renew these natural resources for future generations. All San Mateo County residents must do their part to protect our communities parks, water quality and remaining rural wildland habitat areas. It is a shared opportunity to be responsible stewards of vital but fragile watershed resources. The economic and environmental benefits of the AmbientALERT sentinel systems are the protection, enhancement, and restoration of San Mateo County coastal watersheds, riparian stream zones, and wetlands. A rapid 9/11ALERT deployment will reduce the need for costly new water treatment plants, provide high quality drinking water at reduced cost, reduce the cost of flood damage, and improve water quality for aquatic ecosystems and human recreation. The San Francisco Peninsula Fire Safe Council proposal to deploy the AmbientALERT sentinel systems, FireAlert, FluidAlert, IntruderAlert and InvasiveALERT will provide the San Mateo County Rural Coastal Zone communities with a 21 st Century technological homeland security solution. We must never forget the terrorist lesson of September 11, 2001.

San Mateo County's vast park system needs work: Bridges are collapsing, paths are crumbling, and bathrooms are in disrepair.

The estimated cost of needed work: $112 million. The current annual budget: $7.7 million -- two-thirds of which goes to salaries.

As a result, park officials support Measure A on the November ballot. The measure would raise the county sales tax by one-eighth-cent to 8.375 percent. That would help officials begin badly needed repairs at the county's 16 parks and pay for programs and staffing.

If approved by voters, the county would receive 42 percent of the tax revenue -- more than $6 million a year. More than half of the new tax -- 52 percent -- would be given to cities' parks and recreation programs and 6 percent would go to three special recreation districts.

Allotted on a per-capita ratio, the measure promises cities with the smallest populations -- such as Brisbane and Half Moon Bay -- $205,000 a year. Daly City, the county's biggest city, would get $1.1 million, followed by San Mateo, which would receive about $987,000.

Dave Holland, director of the county's park system, said the current budget covers little more than keeping the parks, which cover 16,000 acres, open and trash free.

"Everything is triage," he said. "You're keeping it open to the public, but you are not able to do the repair work or improvement you need to do."

The county employs 55 people to keep its parks open year-round.

Measure A could pay for anything -- staff, programs, maintenance, new buildings, trees -- that falls under the general parks and recreation department. Neither the cities nor the county could use the money to supplant existing funding.

Corinne Centeno, director of parks in Redwood City, said that although park usage has been on the rise, her department's budget is $2 million less than it was in 2000 and her staff went from a high of 114 employees to 93 today. The new funds -- around $805,000 annually -- would be less than half of what her department has lost, but Centeno said the money could pay for extra staff at the city's heavily used recreation centers.

The measure has no organized opposition, but Catherine Brinkman, a Foster City resident, is one of several individuals to sign a ballot argument against the measure.

Brinkman, who chairs the California Young Republicans, opposes any new tax increases.

"The sales tax is 8 1/4 cents already,'' Brinkman said. "As a Republican, I'm against any more taxes."

The list of supporters for the measure is a who's who of city government officials on the Peninsula. It also has the backing of the several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Trust for Public Land and the Greenbelt Alliance.

Even with broad support, backers of the measure know passing the measure by the needed two-thirds majority won't be easy. They say the tax would cost the average resident an extra $18 a year.

Julia Bott, executive director for the San Mateo County Parks & Recreation Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises about $1 million a year for the parks, thinks that's a small price.

"It's very minimal, and it's the kind of thing that's easily absorbed,'' Bott said. "You pay more for a soda, but we don't want kids drinking sodas, we want them out playing in the parks."
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What Measure A would do
If Measure A passes, the one-eighth-cent tax will raise an estimated $16 million a year for local parks. Funds will be divided annually as follows:

Atherton -- $205,000

Belmont -- $268,272

Brisbane -- $205,000

Burlingame -- $300,681

Colma -- $205,000

Daly City -- $1,106,502

East Palo Alto -- $315,076

Foster City -- $307,569

Half Moon Bay -- $205,000

Hillsborough -- $205,000

Menlo Park -- $328,733

Millbrae -- $221,234

Pacifica -- $409,942

Portola Valley -- $205,000

Redwood City -- $805,169

San Bruno -- $428,896

San Carlos -- $295,983

San Mateo -- $987,556

South San Francisco -- $646,596

Woodside -- $205,000

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District -- $643,620

Highlands Recreational District -- $181,320

Ladera Recreational District -- $90,660

San Mateo County Parks -- $6,346,207

Source: Measure A

E-mail Diana Walsh at dwalsh@sfchronicle.com.

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