Administrative/Regulatory
Sep. 10, 2016
Can officials use vendors to push tax measures?
Californians going to the polls this November will find more than 300 measures to raise taxes. And despite multiple legal decisions limiting the practice, municipal officials in California increasingly pay outside vendors to run campaigns to sell local tax measures. By Will Swaim
On Election Day, Nov. 4, 2014, residents of Stanton, California, voted to create Orange County's first 1 percent local sales tax. That outcome would likely mean nothing were it not for a few salient features.
First, in response to a Public Records Act request, we know that throughout the 2014 campaign, Stanton officials made 16 payments totaling $85,970 to Lew Edwards Group, a political consulting firm.
Second, except fo...
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