Modesto rejects sales tax increase for 2nd time

Voters rejected Modesto’s second request in two years for a tax increase for public safety and other services.

Measure G – a one-half percent general sales tax – had received 43.8 percent in support, or 5,659 votes, vs. 56.2 percent, or 7,266 votes, in opposition in Tuesday’s election, according to the most recent information from the Stanislaus County election office.

The measure needed a simple majority to pass.

Mayor Garrad Marsh, who led the effort to put the tax increase on the ballot, called the results disheartening.

“I just think it should be obvious that there are things that need to be fixed in the city,” he said. “People just say, ‘fix it.’ But we don’t have any tools.”

Measure G was expected to bring in $14 million annually to the city’s general fund over its eight-year life. As a general tax, it could have been spent for any general government purpose. But city officials had said they intended to spend the tax on Modesto’s Safer Neighborhoods Initiative, which called for increased public safety spending, such as hiring more police officers, and efforts to strengthen neighborhoods.

City officials say Modesto is ranked among the top five large California cities for violent and property crime.

Tuesday’s defeat comes after voters rejected Measure X, a 1 percent general sales tax increase the city put on the November 2013 ballot. It received 49 percent of the vote. The Measure G campaign raised $31,000 with much of that coming from Marsh and his wife, Dallas. Nancy Hawn, the wife of former Councilman Brad Hawn, contributed $9,500.

Modesto reduced public safety staffing during the recession and its aftermath, and has not restored those cuts. For instance, the Police Department has roughly 25 percent fewer officers than it had in 2008. Marsh said the city will not have additional money to hire more officers or for other increases to public safety. He said it will be a struggle to keep Fire Station No. 6 in northwest Modesto open after the current budget year, which ends June 30.

The measure did not have the support of many of the candidates running for mayor and three City Council seats.

Nick Bavaro, who led the campaign for the tax increase, said the measure was hurt by low voter turnout and the difficulty of getting voters to approve any tax increase. But he challenged council newcomers Mani Grewal and Doug Ridenour, who were elected Tuesday, to provide leadership on how to make Modesto safer. The two opposed Measure G, but Bavaro said they made public safety a top issue in their campaigns.

Kristi Ah You, the third candidate who won a council seat Tuesday, supported Measure G.

Many of the 13 council and mayoral candidates said voters were telling them they did not trust City Hall with a general sales tax.

The election office reported Wednesday that it had counted 23,258 ballots cast in the couple of dozen races throughout the county. The office said it still has about 7,000 to 8,000 ballots left to count plus a smaller number of ballots mailed to the office in the days before the election as well as provisional ballots. The office reported that there are 175,821 registered voters in the county.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Modesto rejects sales tax increase for 2nd time."