Modesto meeting again over proposed sales tax

The Modesto City Council will hold another discussion Tuesday evening on whether its members should put a sales tax on the November ballot.

The discussion will take place during a workshop after what should be a quick council meeting. The meeting agenda consists mainly of what are known as consent items, which the council typically approves all at once and with little, if any, discussion.

The council also is expected to discuss Modesto’s safe-schools initiative in which the city is working with Modesto City Schools and others on a pilot program at William Garrison, Orville Wright and Robertson Road elementary schools and Mark Twain Junior High School. The initiative is focused on such areas as looking into the need for lights and surveillance cameras in parks and alleys, additional traffic signals, better sidewalks, and safer spaces for parents to drop off and pick up their children at school.

Mayor Garrad Marsh has said the city does not have enough revenue to provide residents with appropriate levels of service, especially in public safety, after years of budget cuts.

He has talked about asking the council to put a one-half percent general sales tax on the November ballot. Such a tax would bring in about $14 million annually to the city’s general fund, which primarily pays for police and fire services. Marsh has proposed using the tax to hire more police officers and firefighters and for other essentials.

This comes after city voters rejected Measure X, the 1 percent general sales tax the council put on the November 2013 ballot. The tax required a simple majority to pass but received 49 percent of the vote, despite a city-commissioned poll showing strong support for a tax measure.

Marsh and other city officials have been making their case for why Modesto needs additional revenue. They have said that while the city’s revenues are growing again, they are not growing as fast as the city’s expenses.

Last week’s council meeting included a presentation in which staff members said Modesto does not measure up compared with seven similar cities, such as Stockton and Fresno. For example, staff said Modesto collects less sales tax revenue per capita than the seven other cities.

But after reviewing the presentation, Dave Thomas of the Stanislaus Taxpayers Association said one thing he spotted is that Modesto is projecting its employee costs to rise from $74.87 million in 2015 to $95.20 million in 2023, an increase of more than 27 percent over eight years.

Rising pension costs make up most of the projected increase. The presentation shows Modesto’s California Public Employees Retirement System payments rising from $14.16 million in 2015 to $22.32 million in 2023.

Thomas questions how much of the proposed tax increase would actually go for hiring more police officers and firefighters.

The council will meet at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St. The workshop will be held after the meeting in room B300 in the basement.

This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 2:25 PM with the headline "Modesto meeting again over proposed sales tax."