Palm Springs, California.  The Palm Springs city council enacted a new 1% sales tax ordinance during their July 20, 2011 regular meeting. The ordinance and accompanying ballot statement are intended for the upcoming November 8th ballot. If approved by a majority of those voting, Palm Springs shoppers will see an additional 1% sales tax added to their purchases. That money, estimated at $8 million annually, will be deposited into the city's general fund available for any approved expenditure.

The council and the city manager have deliberately embarked on a plan to deceive voters into believing the new sales tax will be set aside for specific city improvements. Their sample ballot statement below contains a large shopping list of expenditures voters are being led to believe will result from a favorable vote.

The ballot statement is an absolute mockery! It's duplicitous and another instance of city officials employing the first part of Abraham Lincoln's famous quote, "You can fool all the people some of the time,.....", for it's a practice that's been used with success in the past. The ballot statement content bears little relationship to what's in the actual ordinance. None of the city services and programs mentioned (police, fire, library, parks, city streets/pothole repair, etc.) appear in the eight page ordinance. Instead the following two ordinance paragraphs clearly state where money from the 1% sales tax (estimated at $200 million over 25 years) will be placed.

"(e) To provide transactions, sales, and use tax revenue to the City to be used for the general governmental purposes of the City and with any transactions, sales, and use tax revenue received being placed into the City's general fund."

"The proceeds resulting from this transactions, sales, and use tax shall be deposited into the City's general fund and become subject to the same independent annual audit requirements as other general fund revenue."

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