Measure A would create a guaranteed, long-term revenue stream at the county-level to help stabilize the county’s response to the housing crisis—repealing the existing 1/4 cent sales tax and replacing it with a 1/2 cent sales tax. These additional funds would increase local investments in housing and mental health services for unhoused residents, creation and preservation of affordable housing, and protections for renters in precarity.

While there are a lot of factors that go into a person becoming homeless, most are caught in a crippling vortex of poverty and unaffordable housing. If we don’t want more homeless people on sidewalks, we have to invest in proposals like Measure A that stand a chance of resolving this horrible problem.

No one enjoys paying more taxes. But this one pays for essential fire protection to properties in the district. And perhaps more important, it would allow the county Fire Department to save more lives by responding faster and with better paramedic services to treat grave injuries sustained (for example) in car collisions or natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires.

The maddening irony about the current county government is that, contrary to popular belief, most of the elected officials work hard and do a good job. But they are hampered by a structure that invites stasis and is ill-suited to addressing problems such as homelessness, poverty, inequity, injustice — exactly those challenges assigned to county government. Measure G is the way forward.