Saying county sales tax is already too high, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is planning a counter-offer to the sheriff’s plan for a half-cent sales tax hike to put more law enforcement on the streets.

    “To request the taxpayers to tax themselves again shifts the burden from governments to the taxpayers,” Antonovich says in the rough draft of a proposal he plans to introduce at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
    “Moreover, the sales tax for our county is already high at 8.25 percent in comparison to ther large counties,” including San Bernardino at 7.75 percent and Ventura at 7.25 percent, the draft proposal says.
    Rather than asking voters to pay another half cent for every dollar, Antonovich wants to give them the option of hiking sales tax only a quarter of a cent, with the other quarter-cent in needed money coming from municipal governments’ coffers.
    “(Rather than) a half-cent (increase), we would propose a quarter-cent increase, with each of the cities and counties matching one-quarter (percent),” Antonovich’s justice deputy, Anna Pembedjian, said Friday. “Each city, including each contract city, would have to find it within their existing budget.”

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