With their focus on the presidential race, major issues on the statewide ballot and, of course, that little thing known as the economic meltdown, Sacramento voters could be forgiven for ignorance about Measure O, a citywide measure amending the utility users tax.

But if city voters don't pay attention, they may be in for a big shock – particularly parents of teenagers for whom text messaging is almost an exclusive means of communicating.

Explaining this requires some background. To settle a lawsuit with local taxpayers, city officials agreed to place a measure on the November ballot asking voters to ratify a tax on cell phone service that had never been approved by the voters as required by the California Constitution.

However, in crafting what is now called Measure O, the City Council has grossly overreached and targeted telecommunication services far beyond just cell phone service, including most popular services currently free from taxation: paging, instant messaging, toll-free numbers, call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding, Internet communications and even communications not yet developed.

Moreover, in a revealing admission of its tax hike agenda, in the very words of the ordinance that placed Measure O on the ballot, the city states its intention to tax communication "to the maximum extent allowed by the law."

In other words, irrespective of the wisdom of doing so, they will attempt to squeeze every penny they can from beleaguered taxpayers for all electronic communications in the future.

If the city were honest about this, it would be one thing. But the most offensive part of Measure O is the manner in which they are characterizing the proposal. It is no overstatement to say that the City Council has been downright deceitful.

Rather than being honest with voters, the city of Sacramento is advertising this tax increase as a tax decrease. They are doing this by modestly reducing the rate of the tax (from 7.5 percent to 7 percent) but grossly expanding the base of the tax to all the new types of communications discussed above.

But make no mistake, this will result in tens of millions of dollars being taken out of the wallets and pocketbooks of Sacramento taxpayers that are not being taken now. By any rational measure, this is a tax increase and a big one at that.

But a fair question is whether our city leaders are deserving of more revenue. In answering that question, we pose another: How have Sacramento politicians managed the money taxpayers are currently giving them? Not well, unfortunately. Recent news reports have uncovered millions of dollars of missing funds. A scam in city libraries has resulted in a loss of $1.3 million, and two library officials have been charged with felonies in the scandal.

In another disturbing example of mismanagement, the city auditor discovered an additional $1.3 million worth of missing water meters. A scrap metal dealer has been charged with greasing the palms of city employees, and a whopping 4,500 new water meters are unaccounted for.

In spite of their record, officials apparently hope they can bamboozle voters into supporting Measure O by calling it the "Utility User Tax Reduction and Fairness Measure." Do not be deceived. Measure O implements a 7 percent tax on a slew of communications now enjoyed completely tax-free.

As for fairness, the tax is regressive, meaning it hits the poor the hardest, as the poor spend the greatest share of their income on their phone bill.

Sacramento politicians don't need more taxes; they need to get their house in order. Sacramento residents are already struggling with rising prices on food and gas and falling home values.

And the last thing the city should do is give its residents one more reason to move beyond the city limits.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California's largest taxpayers advocacy organization. He is also a resident of the Pocket area in Sacramento – and is the father of two teenagers who generate countless text messages.