Quarter-Cent State Sales Tax Hike Will Take Effect Today

SACRAMENTO — Just in time for holiday shopping, the state sales tax increases one-fourth cent on each dollar of purchases today.

The estimated $800 million that the additional tax will raise over its 13-month duration will aid victims of the Oct. 17 Bay Area earthquake and help pay for quake-related repairs to freeways, schools and other structures.

Lawmakers who approved the tax in a special session last month scheduled it to begin today so that it will be in effect during both this year’s and next year’s Christmas shopping season.

For most counties in the state, the new sales tax rate will be 6.25%.

However, voters in 13 counties previously approved local-option sales tax increases, mostly for transportation projects. The sales tax as of today will be 6.75% in Fresno, Inyo, Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Francisco and Santa Cruz counties. It will be 7.25% in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Diego, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

And voters in five counties on Nov. 7 approved additional half-cent increases that will not take effect until April 1, 1990, at the earliest. They are Imperial, Monterey, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. When those increases take effect, the tax will be 6.75% in all but San Francisco, which will rise to 7.25%.