SALES TAX PITCH

Bakersfield City Manager Alan Tandy made his case for a one-cent sales tax increase to fund public safety during the annual State of the City luncheon downtown.

Tandy says the rising price of oil isn’t helping Bakersfield’s bottom line because so many of those businesses have closed or downsized.

If the measure passes in November, critics say the $50 Million it could raise every year would go to pensions not police, which Tandy strongly denies.

Kelli Pierce