This past week, Q-line asked: “Will you support a bed tax increase? Why or why not?’
Here are your responses: ■ “There are approximately 9,000 conservatives and 9,000 liberal consistent voters in Santa Monica. It is often difficult for a ballot issue to win without a swing vote from one side to the other. The conservatives like the school parcel tax due to the apartment tenants, who for the most part get stuck with the tab. This time, the wealthy conservatives will have mixed feelings on the bed tax due to their friends — the hotel owners — feeling a negative impact on profits due to the room rates climbing with no additional profit to the hotel. This will be interesting to watch. I will vote for the bed tax because anyone who can afford to stay in a Santa Monica hotel can certainly afford the bed tax.” ■ “Any money gotten from the bed tax will be completely wasted on the bums or harassing businesses in Santa Monica. There is absolutely no point to it.” ■ “This is a good idea. Other cities do this and I think this city needs all the money it can possibly get.” ■ “The bed tax should not be increased. It will drive business away from Santa Monica. If the City Council needs money again, they should budget better.” ■ “I will not support this or any other tax increase. All taxes should be lowered and not raised, as we are all already taxed to death.” ■ “The only thing I find wrong with this question is that you never stated what the bed tax currently is or what it’s proposed to go to, therefore I can’t make an informed decision, can I?” ■ “No new taxes. We cannot lose the revenue of people who spend millions staying in the city. The City Council has been causing this problem for years. If we keep spending money on low-income housing, homeless shelters, homeless resources and giant library projects, what can anyone expect? Before a tax increase, why don’t we cut one-third of our homeless budget and stop building housing that doesn’t generate property tax revenue? I am certain we could find a portion of the money needed to fund our schools and ways to generate even more tourism.” ■ “This is almost a non-issue. We need the people to stay in these hotel rooms to try and keep what used to be a wonderful city somewhat wonderful. I don’t even know why tourists continue to come here — the smell of the homeless is becoming overpowering, the traffic is unbearable. What does a bed tax have to do with anything?” ■ “Another tax? These socialists have never seen a tax dollar they could-n’t spend fast enough. Denny Zane, Judy Abdo, Ken Genser — they should all be replaced with actual leadership. People that will take care of the problems we have, not this bloated bureaucracy we have now. A constant stream of outflowing taxpayer money, these people should be out on the street with the bums.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 8, 2004. Read the original PDF.