While in days gone past at places throughout the United States and particularly in the Old West, a common electioneering tactic used by those seeking office from U.S. Senator to Congressman to territorial governor right down to town mayor or sheriff was to offer men who had not yet voted on election day an incentive of some free whiskey in exchange for a ballot cast in endorsement of their candidacy.
San Bernardino County, the largest such jurisdiction in the Lower 48 States with a huge desert outback spread among its expansive 20,105 square miles, even in this postmodern era has invited comparisons to the Wild West. And while the subtle, or perhaps not so subtle, electioneering that the Town of Yucca Valley is engaged in doesn’t involve free whiskey, there is a question about whether town officials are not offering Yucca Valley’s citizenry something of an illicit inducement to get them to vote in favor of two tax initiatives in which city officials have a stake, those being Measure Y and Measure Z.
In the November 2016 statewide general election, Yucca Valley voters approved Measure Y establishing a one-half cent sales tax. Measure Y was represented to voters as the “Town of Yucca Valley Essential Services Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance.” Measure Y, as approved in 2016, included an expiration date for the tax of ten years after the date the tax was first imposed. With the half-cent sales tax override about to expire, the Yucca Valley Town Council earlier this year placed a measure on the November 5, 2024 general election ballot to eliminate the original ten-year expiration date and convert the tax imposed by the passage of Measure Y in 2016 to a “forever tax,” meaning the tax can be levied without expiration or until such time as voters take up a petition to put another measure on the ballot to end it and a majority of the voters pass that tax-cessation measure. As a courtesy to town officials, the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters designated the 2016 Measure Y continuation initiative as Measure Y for this year’s ballot.
In addition, in 2016, the Yucca Valley Town Council had placed on that November’s general election ballot what was designated Measure Z, which called for establishing an additional one-half cent sales tax to be applied to sales of taxable items within the city. City officials marketed Measure Z as the “Town of Yucca Valley Sewer Implementation and Assessment Assistance Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance.” Town officials said the money raised from the tax would be used to partially defray the cost of building a sewer system in the town. Yucca Valley voters approved Measure Z, which included an expiration date for the tax of ten years after the date the tax was first imposed. As with Measure Y, town officials, concerned about the approaching expiration of Measure Z, earlier this year placed a measure on the November 2024 statewide general election ballot. In the case of Measure Z, the city officials did not seek to perpetuate the tax forever but to extend the expiration date of the original Measure Z for an additional ten years. The San Bernardino County Registrar of voters, again as a courtesy to Yucca Valley officials, designated the remake of the 2016 Measure Z as Measure Z on this year’s ballot.
In the effort to convince the town’s voters to vote in favor of measures Y and Z, town officials have hosted what they have titled “lunch and learn” sessions at the Town Hall complex on October 9 and October 16, and will host yet two other presentations on October 22 and October 30. The previous briefings took place and the one on October 30 will take place at 12:30 p.m. in the Cholla Room of the Yucca Valley Community Center, located at 57090 Twentynine Palms Highway, just off Dumosa Avenue. The October 22 session will be one in the evening, at 5:30 p.m. in the community center’s Yucca Room.
Food and beverages are provided to attendees.
Those beverages reportedly, at least so far, did not include whiskey or any strong drink. Still, under California law, governmental entities and agencies are prohibited from utilizing taxpayer money to promote or oppose any political candidate or political measure.
While town officials insist that what they are doing is holding informational presentations about the measures, and not promoting them, the goal is to provide those who attend with a reason or reasons to support both Measure Y and Measure Z rather than offer a balancing of reasons for and against the tax initiatives, which town officials unabashedly admit they want voters to pass.