Modesto moves closer toward putting tax on ballot

The Modesto City Council has taken a big step toward putting a general sales tax on the November ballot.

At the end of a Tuesday evening council workshop, Mayor Garrad Marsh called a special meeting for next Tuesday in which council members would discuss the ballot language of the proposed tax ahead of their June 23 meeting, in which the council could vote to put the tax on the ballot. The council has to make a decision this month in order to get the measure on the November ballot.

The mayor’s action came after council members reached a consensus on putting the tax on the ballot, though there were cautions raised by some of them.

The council’s sales tax discussion came after City Manager Jim Holgersson laid out the city’s financial challenges, the positions it has lost because of budget cuts (especially among the ranks of police officers and firefighters) and the city’s Safer Neighborhoods Initiative.

The initiative involves the city working more closely with its neighborhoods on such concerns as nuisance homes, youth programs and fighting crime. Most of the city’s efforts are in public safety, and the city would hire more police officers and firefighters and increase public safety spending if it had a tax increase, according to Holgersson’s presentation.

The sales tax discussion comes after city voters rejected Measure X, the 1 percent sales tax the city put on the November 2013 ballot. As a general tax, the measure needed a simple majority to pass but received 49 percent of the vote.

Modesto is considering this time a one-half percent general sales tax for a term of eight years. Such a tax would bring in about $14 million annually to the city’s $115 million general fund, which primarily pays police and fire services. Modesto’s sales tax rate is 7.625 percent. City officials say 84 percent of California’s cities have higher sales tax rates.

Councilman Dave Cogdill said while he supported putting a sales tax on the ballot and letting the voters decide whether they wanted to pay more, he feared this measure would have the same fate as Measure X.

He said the public has a general distrust of government at all levels and that while some city officials predicted dire consequences if Measure X failed – such as the closure of a fire station – those consequences have not materialized. Officials “painted a doomsday scenario,” he said. “... But everything has been fine.”

He said after the meeting Modesto has made the painful but necessary budget cuts in recent years and has paid the price by having fewer police officers and firefighters. But he said a tax increase is not the answer. He said Modesto needs to focus its efforts on growing the economy, which would create additional revenue for the city.

“My biggest fear is that we raise this tax that provides a temporary revenue stream and it exacerbates the problem,” Cogdill said. “We have examples. Look at Stockton. It has the highest sales tax rate, and it’s the city statistically with the most problems (in the Valley) and it was insolvent. We could go down that road.”

Marsh said during the workshop that Modesto has made cuts since Measure X’s failure, including reducing the number of police officer positions by 20. He has said if the city does not get additional revenue, it faces making more public safety cuts starting in about a year.

Councilman Tony Madrigal, whose district includes some of Modesto’s poorer neighborhoods, said Measure X’s failure has meant his constituents still are plagued by high levels of crime and low service levels.

Councilman Dave Lopez said because most of the proceeds of the proposed sales tax would be spent on public safety, Modesto should consider putting a public safety tax on the ballot.

He said that would eliminate any doubts voters may have about how Modesto would spend the money. A general sales tax requires a simple majority to pass and while officials can say how they intend to spend the tax, the tax can be spent on any general government purpose. A dedicated tax requires two-thirds voter approval and can only be spent for its specific purpose, such as public safety or roads.

Modesto is considering putting two measures on the November ballot: one for the sales tax and the second asking voters to weigh in on the city’s plan to spend the money primarily on public safety. The second measure is advisory, but City Attorney Adam Lindgren said it provides another layer of accountability for how the money is spent. Modesto also would create a citizens committee to monitor how the tax is spent.

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Modesto moves closer toward putting tax on ballot."