Outside of the Santa Clara County Government Center on Monday, a group of residents chanted against Measure A, a proposal which aims to increase sales tax by five-eighths-of-a-cent to counteract an estimated billion dollars of lost federal revenue annually.
On Nov. 4, residents of Santa Clara County will vote on the proposal which, according to county officials, will be critical to preserving healthcare access and other services provided by Medicaid funding.
In July, Congress passed a plan to gradually cut one trillion dollars in funding for Medicaid over the next decade as a part of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” The tension over healthcare in Congress has led to a government shutdown, with Democrats refusing to vote without a reversal of Medicaid cuts.
One in four Santa Clara County residents rely on Medicaid. Measure A attempts to create funds to continue medicaid services to counteract the absence of government support.
However, the coalition against this proposal argues that taxes are already far too high and that increasing the sales tax rate only has negative impacts for seniors and families.
Currently, the local sales tax rate is 9.125%, with the proposal aiming to bring this number up by 0.625%. This would bring cities with their own sales tax add-ons, such as Milpitas and San Jose, to an overall sales tax rate over 10%, making basic products like food and gasoline much less accessible to communities.