Modesto puts general sales tax on November ballot

Modesto voters will decide this fall whether they want to pay more in sales taxes for more police officers and firefighters and other services to make neighborhoods safer.

The City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to place a one-half percent general sales tax on the November ballot. Because it’s a general tax, the measure can be spent on any general government purpose. But city officials say their intent is to spend the tax on Modesto’s Safer Neighborhoods Initiative and the tax will have safeguards, such as a citizens committee to monitor spending.

Councilmen Dave Lopez and Bill Zoslocki voted against the tax. They support a specific public safety tax, which requires a two-thirds threshold to pass and can be used only for its specific purpose. A general tax needs a simple majority to pass.

The council’s decision came after a long discussion, a sharp exchange between City Attorney Adam Lindgren and Dave Thomas with the Stanislaus Taxpayers Association, and council members reversing their positions on how the tax should be presented to voters.

Last week, the council voted 5-2 to move forward with two ballot measures: one for the general sales tax and a second advisory one asking voters whether the tax should be spent on the Safer Neighborhoods Initiative. (Lopez and Zoslocki also voted “no” then.)

But council members scrapped the second measure after Councilman Dave Cogdill Jr. repeated some of the concerns he raised last week. He said having two measures on the ballot could confuse voters and the city could be sued over the second advisory measure.

Thomas said last week and Tuesday night that the California Supreme Court has declared advisory measures unconstitutional. Lindgren disagreed both times and said case law supports having a sales tax measure and a companion advisory measure on the ballot.

What Cogdill said mattered because he was the swing vote Tuesday night. A city report for the meeting stated that the measures needed the votes of at least five of the seven council members to be placed on the ballot, a point that had not been made during previous discussions of the sales tax.

After Cogdill raised his concerns, Mayor Garrad Marsh called for a brief break so the city’s attorneys could change the proposal to a single ballot measure asking voters to implement the Safer Neighborhoods Initiative by approving a one-half percent general sales tax.

This tax measure comes after voters rejected Measure X, a 1 percent general sales tax Modesto put on the November 2013 ballot. It needed a simple majority to pass but received 49 percent of the vote, though a city-commissioned poll had shown strong voter support for the tax.

Officials say the city needs additional revenue because while its revenues are recovering, they have not reached prerecession levels and are being outpaced by expenses. Officials add that after years of budget cutting, Modesto is not able to provide the services residents expect. For instance, city officials say the Police Department has lost about 20 percent of its officers since 2008.

This tax measure is expected to bring in about $14 million annually over its eight-year life.

But Dave Wright – who is running for the council in the November election – said the council has yet to publicly state the primary reason Modesto needs more money: The city has to pay more to the California Public Employees Retirement System for its employees’ pensions.

“I have not heard one council person talk about the true reason for the need – rising pension costs,” he said.

At a January financial sustainability workshop, officials said Modesto faces an additional $44 million in CalPERS costs through 2023. But officials have said other California cities face the same issue, and Modesto also collects less sales and property taxes than such similar cities as Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento.

This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 6:29 AM with the headline "Modesto puts general sales tax on November ballot."