Fighting to Protect Your Tax Dollars

Last week, the City of San Mateo joined every city in San Mateo County in the County’s lawsuit against the State of California to recover $38 million in funds legally owed to our local government agencies.  These funds are shared annually by the County and all 20 cities providing critical dollars for programs and services that include health care, public safety, and affordable housing.

The lawsuit details that this year San Mateo County local governments received only $76.5 million of the $114.3 million owed under a state funding formula – a nearly $38 million gap. The City of San Mateo’s share of the funding shortfall is $2.2 million.  

The State’s initial 2025 budget proposal excluded San Mateo County’s funding entirely, but successful lobbying by the County and its State Assembly and Senate members (including our State Senator Josh Becker and State Assemblymember Diane Papan…thank you both!) restored two-thirds of the total owed to support critical local services for this year only.  It is highly likely that the State budget will exclude the County and its cities once again next year.

In these tough economic times, I will fight alongside all of my San Mateo City Council colleagues to ensure that the taxes you pay for critical local services are used for these services and not to shore up the State budget.

Read the full press release here.  I will keep you posted on progress in future D1 Digest editions.