A runoff election for the Santa Clara County Assessor’s seat is looking probable, based on county polls, and Measure A is poised to pass.
The Santa Clara County Assessor’s seat opened after Larry Stone, former assessor, announced his June 23 retirement after a 30-year career. The seat, voted in by county residents, required a Nov. 4 special election to fill Stone’s seat for the one-year remainder of his four-year term.
Another election for a new four-year term will be scheduled the following November. Four candidates have emerged to succeed Stone: Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor; Saratoga City Councilmember Yan Zhao; former Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar; and Bryan Do, current president of the Eastside Union High School District.
As of 9:45 a.m. Monday, Fligor and Kumar are leading the polls, with 174,691 (37.73%) and 111,341(24.04%) votes, respectively. Zhao is third with 98,278 (21.22%) votes and Do follows with 78,227 (16.89%), 100% of precincts reporting.
In the event no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote, the top two contenders will square off in a runoff election, set for Dec. 30. Currently, those two candidates are Fligor and Kumar.
Fligor thanked voters for the opportunity to head to the runoff election in December.
“I look forward to continue sharing my vision for the assessor’s office,” she stated in a message to the Town Crier. “It is clear from the results that voters want someone who will be ready on day one to lead the assessor’s office – protecting local revenue for vital services like health care, education, and public safety, improving processes, saving taxpayers money and producing an accurate, fair and transparent assessment roll.”
Kumar said he’s also excited to face off against Fligor.
“We’re thrilled to have made the Dec. 30 runoff while spending a fraction of what my opponent did,” Kumar stated in an email to the Town Crier. He also posted the same message on his website. “I stand by my pledge to deliver property tax exemption for those aged 60 and over with a statewide ballot initiative that’s already forging ahead. I will get it done and we are going to win this seat.”
Measure A
Measure A calls for a sales tax of five-eighths of a cent for five years, or 0.625%, generating $330 million per year in annual revenue and needs a simple majority to pass. The measure, put on the ballot by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, was a response to funding cuts signed into law in July by President Donald Trump, including more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid nationally. Santa Clara County receives more than $2.3 billion in funding from the federal Medicaid program, representing the largest single source of federal funding to the county each year, which threatens Santa Clara Valley Healthcare, according to a county press release. The cuts would threaten both public and private healthcare, potentially resulting in a $1 billion loss in revenue to Santa Clara County’s $4.6 billion public hospital system.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga said that Santa Clara County is taking a $1 billion hit in federal funding largely through Medicaid, with Measure A helping to stanch around one-third of the loss and preventing the most severe reductions to county services like healthcare, food assistance, housing and other safety-net programs.
“Nobody likes to pay more in taxes, so I am deeply grateful to the voters who likely chose to do so because they knew, like me, that we can’t afford to lose our hospitals, particularly our trauma care hospitals that serve everyone in the county,” Abe-Koga stated in an email.
As of 9:45 a.m. Monday, Measure A is passing with 303,391 (57.08%) votes in support and 228,122 (42.92%) against the measure, 100% of precincts reporting.
Kumar, also the chair of the No on Measure A campaign, had argued before the election that Measure A would hurt poor people and increase living expenses, calling it a regressive tax that hurts struggling families.
“The people have spoken, and I hope the county will spend the money judiciously,” Kumar stated in an email after the election.
The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters began counting votes at 8 p.m. Nov. 4, and mail-in ballots that were postmarked the date of the election have until Nov. 12 to be received and counted by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.
As of 9:45 a.m. Monday, more than half of registered Santa Clara County voters have voted – 546,685 ballots (51.16%) were cast.
