Final tally shows Measures A and B passed with more than 70 percent of vote

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• A.G. weighs renewing tax hike

  A.G. weighs renewing tax hike

  Over the past five years, since a half-cent sales tax increase took effect in Arroyo Grande, nearly $8.5 million has been spent or is budgeted for street and sidewalk repairs, transportation projects, public safety and public facility improvement.

  City staff is recommending the Arroyo Grande City Council maintain the sales tax at 7.75 cents on the dollar.

  Doing so is critical to help fund improvements to the Brisco Road/Halcyon Road interchange with Highway 101, continue resurfacing city streets, contribute to the Five Cities Fire Authority (the joint department with Grover Beach and Oceano), and pay some of the cost associated with a loan the city received to acquire and upgrade its current city hall building at 300 E. Branch St., City Manager Steve Adams wrote in a staff report to the council.

• SLO police union asks state to overturn voter decision

  SLO police union asks state to overturn voter decision

  The San Luis Obispo Police Officers Association is seeking to upend voters’ recent decision to repeal binding arbitration as a means of negotiating wages and benefits by the city’s police and fire unions.

  In mid-October, the union filed a claim with the Public Employment Relations Board, a state agency that oversees the collective bargaining statutes with cities, alleging that San Luis Obispo used unfair labor practices by placing two measures on the ballot in August to repeal binding arbitration and negotiate reduced employee retirement benefits without seeking voter approval.

  In August, 70 percent of San Luis Obispo voters overwhelmingly passed two ballot measures overturning binding arbitration and allowing the city to create a two-tier pension plan without voter approval.

• Survey shows support for sales tax extension in San Luis Obispo

  Survey shows support for sales tax extension in San Luis Obispo

  San Luis Obispo voters remain in favor of extending an added sales tax to pay for essential city services, according to a recent survey commissioned by the city, but support for it has declined over the past year.

  Of the local registered voters asked in a telephone survey, 59 percent said they would likely support renewing Measure Y, the city’s half-cent added sales tax approved by San Luis Obispo voters in 2006. In 2010, a similar survey found that 64 percent of registered voters polled said they would vote yes.

  “The prospects for renewing Measure Y are good, but definitive support for Measure Y has fallen since May 2010,” according to a report summarizing the survey.

• Paso right to push for tax increase

  Paso right to push for tax increase

  From apolitical standpoint, this is not the best of times for the city of Paso Robles to seek a half-cent sales tax increase. Not while the memory of a $250,000 payout to former police Chief Lisa Solomon is still fresh.

  True, that frustration may have faded by the time the November election rolls around. But here’s another hurdle: There most likely will be competing tax measures — including the governor’s own half-cent sales tax increase — on the ballot, and voters may not be in a generous enough mood to approve multiple tax increases.

  Does that mean the city should back off?

• State of Arroyo Grande police station shows need for new one

  State of Arroyo Grande police station shows need for new one

  Arroyo Grande City Councilman Tim Brown didn’t mince words when he called the city’s old police station “a dump.” That may be an overly harsh assessment, but we agree that a new station is long overdue.

  For that reason, we applaud the City Council’s decision to put a $6.7 million bond measure on the June 5 ballot to fund a new station. We strongly urge voters to approve it.

  Yes, this remains a dicey time to ask voters to approve any sort of tax or assessment, and this measure is especially challenging because it requires a two-thirds “super majority” to pass.