Fundraising lopsided so far on Santa Rosa cellphone tax measure

Supporters of Santa Rosa’s effort to tax cellphones are getting vastly outspent by the handful of well-financed business interests opposed to the measure.

To date, the firefighter-backed group supporting Measure N hasn’t raised any cash, while the business leaders sworn to defeat it have pulled in $46,000, according to the latest campaign filings.

With less than two weeks to go before Election Day, the funding disparity could play a key role in whether voters get behind the controversial measure.

Supporters last week formed a campaign committee called “Santa Rosans in support of public safety, parks and good roads. Yes on Measure N.” It has yet to officially raise any money.

A day after forming the committee, filings indicate the group spent $7,510 on TV ads. The ads, which have been running in recent days, stress that passing the measure is important for the sake of the city’s future fiscal health.

“We believe that the City Council was making the right move in taking to voters the modernization of a tax vehicle that is 20 years old,” said Tim Aboudara, president of Santa Rosa Fire Fighters Local 1401. “Twenty years ago, there were probably 100 cellphones in the county.”

He noted without the changes, the city’s general fund is in imminent risk of losing $1.6 million of what is known as the “utility users tax.” The 5 percent tax on telephone, cable, gas and electric bills has been around since the 1970s. Under Measure N, which is being called the “UUT Modernization and Fairness Measure,” that percentage would drop to 4.5 percent but be expanded to cover cellphones.

The group supporting Measure N has not officially received any donations yet but has commitments from donors in excess of the $7,500, Aboudara said.

The city’s firefighters aren’t often outspent in their political activities, but they’re on track to be.

Two developers and the county’s largest business organization have teamed up to raise a total of $46,000 so far for “Citizens Against a Tax on Our Cell Phones - No on N,” according to filings.

Developer Richard Coombs, a partner in Airport Business Center, is spearheading the campaign and donated $10,000. The family of developer and First Community Bank Chairman Bill Gallaher contributed another $35,000 last week. The donation was made under the name Young Hoon Kim LLC, which Coombs said is the birth name of Gallaher’s adopted son, Billy Gallaher. The Sonoma County Alliance also kicked in $1,000.

Coombs and his partners, who in addition to the airport-area properties own the Roxy Stadium 14 and 50 Old Courthouse Square building downtown, are suing the city over $136,000 in utility taxes they say they were overcharged.

“When I originally heard the city was going to try to extend the tax to cellphones I actually giggled,” recalled Coombs. “Because I said, ‘That’s impossible.’?”

He said he believed there was no legal justification for the city to extend the tax to cellphones because unlike landlines and cable TV services that run along or beneath city roads, cellular networks have no arguable impact on city infrastructure.

He also felt people would never stand for the taxation of their cellphones, especially once they learned of what he says is the city’s pattern of overtaxing businesses like his own and refusing to return the money once the errors are noted.

But then he read the ballot language and “impartial analysis” of the measure by City Attorney Caroline Fowler and felt both were deceptive.

“It’s one of the most misleading pieces of legislation that I’ve ever read,” Coombs said.

The ballot measure says it would “modernize the ordinance to include wireless and other technologies to treat taxpayers the same regardless of technology.” Fowler’s analysis states the tax would “treat all technologies equally so every phone customer is treated fairly, whether they use the latest technology or older phone services.”

Last year, the tax raised $9.6 million. While some city leaders expressed a desire to keep the revised tax as “revenue neutral” as possible, the city estimates the expanded tax would generate $11.9 million per year, a 24 percent increase.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @srcitybeat.