Council advances possible tax increases
The city of El Centro Councilmembers gave staff direction to draft a pair of resolutions for action in the next meeting that could ultimately add two ballots in the November election that would increase the rate of taxes for the transient occupancy tax and sales tax.
The city wants to increase revenue to help pay for the cost of a new library, potential new police department and plenty other projects and services, and one option is to increase both of the taxes.
The TOT ultimately affects visitors to El Centro while only the sales tax directly affects residents, a reason why council gave direction to staff to pro- ceed to draft the resolutions for consideration, but not without concern by some councilmembers.
Some were concerned residents would believe both affect residents directly and face resis- tance. It would cost the city $35,000 to place one or both measures on the ballot, a gamble council doesn’t want to gamble with, especially when the Central Union High School District already plans to add Measure K, a bond for providing funds for improvements for all four of its schools in the district.
The first resolution to be drafted would be to increase the sales tax to 8.5, the same as Calexico. For the sales tax in other Valley cities, Brawley and Imperial also have an 8 percent tax rate like El Centro while Calexico has an 8.5 percent rate.
For the TOT, council gave the city staff direction to draft a resolution with two options, one with a flat increase in the tax while the other to add a 1 percent increase for a set number of years. Those numbers are not set and would be finalized if the council approves it at the next council meeting.
The current TOT is 10 percent and paid by hotel clients.
In other cities in the Valley for the TOT tax, Calexico currently has a 10 percent rate, Brawley and Imperial 8 percent and Holtville 4 percent.
Both ballots would need a simple majority vote to pass if they are included in the November ballot. In the meantime, council plans to contact the city’s Chamber of Commerce to get its perspective on both possible ballots.
In other news, Mark Baza the executive director for the Imperial County Transportation Commission, gave council some good and bad news during an informational presentation.
The good news, the Dogwood Road overpass project over Interstate 8 is proceeding as planned and should be completed by the end of October.
The bad news, there is a possibility the funding for the upcoming Imperial Avenue/Interstate 8 interchange will be delayed. The project was set to begin construction at the end of 2017 and could be delayed to the end of 2018.
The project will have Imperial Avenue extended south of Interstate 8 all the way to McCabe Road for quite a few reasons.
A study report by California Department of Transportation states Imperial County is expected to have a 95 percent population rate increase by 2020, the highest population grown increase by any county in southern California. An extension of Imperial Avenue south of Interstate 8 will help alleviate traffic on Fourth Street and help connect drivers to the southern section of the city.
The improvements will complement city plans for future commercial and residential development.
“The Imperial Avenue interchange experiences congestion in the morning and afternoon hours,” stated a fact sheet from Caltrans which was published in September. “Approximately 16,00027,000 vehicles per day use this section on I-8. By 2025, traffic on this portion of I-8 is projected to almost double.”
The $40 million project is funded through state Region Improvement Program and federal dollars secured in March 2014. The project is in the design phase and is scheduled to start construction at the end of 2017. Con- struction will take two years to complete.
Baza told council Tuesday the state might not provide the funds it needs to keep the construction on the projected timeline and might be delayed a year. El Centro City Manager Ruben Duran told council city staff is continuing to move forward with the design phase so if the funding is secured, the city will continue with its share of the design. Baza also said Caltrans is also continuing with the collaborated design phase with the city as well.
Also, the city commemorated May as Veterans Appreciation Month and also congratulated Southwest High senior Junior Mejia for winning the Southern California Super States Chess Championship recently. Mejia shared his experience with council.
The next council meeting is May 17.