Cal City will try again to pass parcel tax
CALIFORNIA CITY — Having failed in the March primary election, California City officials will again seek voter approval for a special parcel tax to provide funding to the city’s public safety services in the face of a looming fiscal crisis.
The City Council decided Tuesday to make another attempt at a ballot measure, this time during a special election in July. Voters will be asked to approve a tiered tax rate of $120 per parcel per year for improved property and $60 per parcel per year for unimproved property. The tax rate would be reduced by one-sixth each year for the six years of the tax. Revenue from the special tax would be used strictly to support the police and fire departments.
The proposal was approved on a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Pro Tem Ron Smith and Councilmember Jim Creighton dissenting.
While the council agreed to the special election and the framework of the tax measure, the formal measure language must be approved during a public hearing, to be held in a special meeting to be called in the coming days.
In March, voters rejected Measure
A, intended to ensure continued funding of city services. It proposed a special parcel tax starting at $146 per parcel per year, with a formula to reduce the rate over the five-year period as other revenues increase. It was effectively a five-year continuation of the voter-approved special parcel tax that has provided the majority of public safety funding since 2018.
In official final election results, Measure A received 978 votes against it, or 55.73%, and 777 votes in favor of it, or 44.27%.
The current special parcel tax, set to expire June 30, follows a decades-long practice in California
City of using such measures to fund a significant portion of the city’s budget — in this case the police and fire departments.
The existing special parcel tax is projected to provide approximately $6.7 million of the city’s $31.2 million budget. As of now, the city has no other revenues to make up for the loss of those funds when the tax expires.
Mayor Kelly Kulikoff proposed the new special tax measure as a means of addressing the funding shortfall and forcing the city to pursue economic development.
“That will be a less-destructive policy. It will be easy to follow,” he said. “This will be very simple and transparent.”
The proposed special tax measure would not completely close the budget gap created by the expiration of the existing tax. In addition, the city will need mandated budget cuts of some $2 million to unspecified “nonessential” services, Kulikoff said.
Additionally, the city needs to increase collection of the taxes owed by the cannabis industry, collections that have been lacking.
The estimated approximately $3 million generated by the proposed special tax will help the police and fire departments avoid drastic cuts, he said.
“This is not going to handle our police and fire (departments) whatsoever,” Smith said, noting that the $3 million is less than the police department budget alone, which is nearly $3.4 million this year.
Smith also stated he would not support a measure that was strictly to support public safety, but would support a broader public service designation for the funds, as in Measure A.
“I can’t support a public safety only (tax), especially one that’s not going to even cover one department,” he said.
“It’s a public safety tax. That’s our issue,” Kulikoff said, adding it was simpler and easier to convey to voters that way.
Some members of the public stated they felt that a special tax measure would receive more support if it was limited to the police and fire departments.
Without a special tax in place, the city will have to find more than $5 million in budget cuts, Kulikoff said.
“It’s going to be a lot of closing down of city services,” he said.
Historically, special tax measures have required multiple attempts before voters before being approved, including the existing special tax measure that was approved in a special election in July 2018.