Remember Measure U, the half-cent sales tax that was supposed to reverse the city of Sacramento’s gloomy financial fortunes? Well, it turns out the Magic 8 Ball is still cloudy on how that’s going.

In short, the city doesn’t really know how much the temporary tax is actually raking into municipal coffers, despite first-year projections of $27 million.

Since going into effect in April 2013, Measure U has resulted in erratic collections and significant errors, finance director Leyne Milstein told the Sacramento City Council on February 11. As a result, Milstein said her department was sequestering any Measure U money it finds suspect for when the California Board of Equalization comes calling to collect.

“We already know they’ve given us more cash than we get to keep, because we know for sure that there are people who have remitted who should not have,” she added.

And you thought doing your taxes was difficult.

—Raheem F. Hosseini