On the November 3 Ballot
Measure H
Not One Penny More.
San Mateo has a budget problem. City Hall’s answer is to ask you for more money. I think we owe you better work than that first.
Do the Work First.
I oppose Measure H — not because our city’s finances are fine. They aren’t. I oppose it because asking residents for more money before examining how the money we already collect gets spent is backwards.
A tax is the easiest thing a city can ask for and the hardest thing to undo. Once a revenue stream exists, the pressure to examine spending disappears with it. That’s why the sequence matters so much.
You’re right to ask what I’d do instead of simply opposing another tax.
The Measure Itself
Read It Yourself.
I want you to reach your own conclusion, so here is where the City’s own material lives — the full text, the official ballot question, and the City’s case for passing it.
In short: the City Council voted to place a quarter‑cent sales tax on the November 3 ballot. The City says the money would go to streets, parks, fire and paramedic services, crime prevention and traffic safety, with independent audits and an oversight committee. Groceries and prescription medication would be exempt.
Those are real needs. My disagreement isn’t with the list — it’s with asking residents to fund it before the City has shown its work on everything else.
What I Would Do Instead
Six Things, In Order.
Before San Mateo asks residents for another dollar, here is the work I believe City Hall owes the people who live here.
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Review every dollar the City spends
A comprehensive review of City spending and services — all of it, not the easy parts.
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Separate essential from discretionary
Police, fire, 9‑1‑1, streets and emergency response are not the same category as everything else, and the budget should say so.
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Scrutinize vacancies, contracts and consultants
Open positions, outside contracts and administrative costs are where budgets quietly grow. They deserve hard questions.
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Set measurable standards for every major program
If a program can’t show what it achieved, residents shouldn’t be asked to keep funding it on faith.
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Use technology to lower operating costs
I’ve spent forty years helping cities solve exactly this kind of problem. Process improvements and better systems save real money.
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Build a multi‑year plan to fix the structural deficit
Eliminate the deficit and rebuild reserves on a stated timeline, so the next shortfall doesn’t arrive as a surprise.
Grow the Base
Raise Revenue Without Raising Your Taxes.
There is more than one way for a city to bring in money. San Mateo has leaned on one of them and neglected the other.
I would focus on expanding the City’s economic base — retaining the businesses we already have, filling the commercial vacancies sitting empty along our corridors, and actively attracting new employers and businesses our community actually wants.
Improving recurring revenue through economic activity is a different thing from continually turning to residents for higher taxes.
Recovering the Vehicle License Fee revenue I believe San Mateo is owed by the State is one more piece of this — but it cannot be the entire fiscal strategy.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Better Priorities Before Higher Taxes.
- Control Spending
- Protect Essential Services
- Show Residents the Books