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By Steve Levy
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved ...
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. I do not drive and being downtown where I work and close to the CalTrain station and downtown amenities makes my life more independent. I have worked all my life as an economist focusing on the California economy. My work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. I do this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. My other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. The title of the blog is Invest and Innovate and that is what I believe is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. I served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. I also believe that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth.
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Palo Alto Measures E, F and Z
Uploaded: Oct 12, 2018
I will vote yes on Z the school bond proposal and yes (reluctantly) on E the hotel tax increase for infrastructure/ I will vote no on Measure F asking Palo Alto to regulate health care prices for Stanford and other local providers.
The votes on E and Z support the invest and innovate theme of this blog.
The school bond continues the District's improvement of facilities including measures to incorporate new technologies. Though Nancy and I have no children in school, we want ti support the next generation as previous generations supported facilities that our children used.
I was on the infrastructure commission and support the projects that will benefit from the increased hotel taxes. My reluctance is that I would prefer a more general contribution from residents and business property owners for funding these projects. The relationship between these projects and hotel visitors seems shaky compared to the benefits these projects will supply to local residents and businesses. We support bonds to pay for school improvements. I would have preferred we pay for this ourselves..
The hotel tax polled well compared to other taxes but I do not like the "let the other folks pay for it" argument.
I will vote no on Measure F. I do not think it is the business of cities to regulate health care prices nor do we have the expertise or funds to implement and defend such decisions in court.
Democracy.
What is it worth to you?
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