US CA: Tax to Expand Police Slightly Ahead; Marijuana Measure Likely to Pass

Newshawk: California NORML http://www.canorml.org
Pubdate: Wed, 03 Nov 2004
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: B - 9
Webpage:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/03/BAGPN9KO901.DTL

le.
Copyright: 2004 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: letters [at] sfchronicle.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Author: Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Cited: Measure Z http://www.yesonz.org
Cited: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
http://www.norml.org
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://safeaccessnow.org/
(Decrim/Legalization)

Tax to Expand Police Slightly Ahead

MARIJUANA MEASURE LIKELY TO PASS

After twice defeating measures to hire more police, Oakland voters
were narrowly supporting on Tuesday a parcel tax to fund 63 more
police officers and anti-violence social programs.

Measure Y, which would raise nearly $20 million a year from property
owners, was barely ahead of the two-thirds majority needed to pass,
with about a third of the votes counted.

Meanwhile, voters in the city were strongly approving an initiative to
make private adult cannabis use the lowest enforcement priority for
police. Measure Z would also lay the groundwork for decriminalizing
marijuana and require the City Council to lobby for decriminalization.

The anti-crime measure polarized the city, which historically has one
of the state's highest violent crime rates but not enough money to
hire new officers when officers retire or quit.

Don Link, a North Oakland activist who led a team of volunteer
campaign workers, said late Tuesday that he thought the narrow lead
would hold up.

"The more we told people about Measure Y, the more they supported it,"
Link said. "I think we're going to win."

Mayor Jerry Brown and seven of eight City Council members backed
Measure Y, touting it as a compromise between those who want more
police to fight crime in Oakland and others who see targeted social
programs as the best way to deter people from crime.

Some residents worked against Measure Y because they felt it to be a
weak compromise that would not result in hiring enough officers. Other
opponents said that Oakland doesn't need more police and that the city
is best served by more social programs. Both factions against Measure
Y said they thought it was a flawed piece of legislation driven by
politics.

The measure would provide $9.5 million a year for police, $6.4 million
for violence prevention -- including after-school programs and
counseling, and training for people on parole and probation for
nonviolent crimes -- and $4 million to restore cuts to the Fire Department.

Owners of single-family homes would pay $88 a year, apartment owners
$60 per unit and commercial property owners $45 for each space
equivalent to a family residence. The measure would raise the city
parking tax from 10 percent to 18.5 percent.

Measure Y was Oakland's third attempt to pass an anti-crime tax in two
years.

Brown first proposed taxing residents to hire more police officers in
2002, when the city's homicide rate began to skyrocket. The city
finished that year with 113 homicides, an increase of more than 25
percent over 2001.

Two years ago, Oakland voters supported a nonbinding measure to hire
100 new officers. But three related tax increases that would have
funded the expansion did not receive 50 percent of the vote.

In March, parcel tax Measure R, which would have raised about half as
much money for social programs and police as Measure Y, fell a couple
hundred votes shy of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. The
City Council placed Measure Y on the ballot after a series of public
hearings and meetings.

Measure Z, the cannabis initiative, was the result of petition by a
coalition of pro-cannabis, civil liberties groups, including the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Americans
for Safe Access, which supports medical marijuana.

Other supporters included state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, Rep.
Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley and
Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks. It was opposed by council members
Danny Wan and Larry Reid and by Bob Jackson, pastor of Acts Full
Gospel Church, one the largest African American congregations in Oakland.