Turlock council looks into sales tax increase amid budget troubles
Turlock residents may see a city sales tax measure on the November ballot if the city council receives answers to myriad questions surrounding the issue.
Interim city manager Michael Cooke is scheduled to report next steps for a ballot measure on Tuesday, one meeting after council members learned a poll showed support for a sales tax amid a tight city budget.
The council needs to discuss how much a sales tax may be, what services it would fund, how long it would last and how an oversight committee would monitor spending, Cooke said. The council also needs to work with the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, Cooke said, and could vote in May or June to present a measure to residents.
City officials directed Cooke to determine next steps at the previous regular meeting, where a research company presented a survey showing 68% of Turlock voters support a hypothetical sales tax. Of the 525 residents polled over the phone and online last month, 28% said they would vote against a tax titled “Turlock Public Safety/Community Services Measure,” while 4% were undecided.
The hypothetical measure presented to survey participants said a 1 cent sales tax would go toward homelessness, police, firefighters, emergency medical services, street repair, supporting local businesses, anti-gang and drug programs and programs for youth and seniors. Survey participants were told the measure would raise $15 million per year and require audits, according to polling company FM3 Research.
All four councilmembers spoke in favor of considering a sales tax at the last meeting, including Councilman Andrew Nosrati, who said every city department has an unsustainable budget.
”We’re just struggling to make things run at day-to-day operations level that can provide the bare minimum,” Nosrati said during the meeting. “I don’t even think we’re really providing the bare minimum of what the majority of the public wants.”
The poll, which Cooke said cost about $40,000, showed 44% of respondents said the city is on the wrong track and 24% said they don’t know if Turlock is headed in the right direction. About 47% of poll participants also said they thought inefficiency in city government was a serious problem, which prompted Mayor Amy Bublak to urge caution with a tax.
“People are saying they support it (the tax) for a myriad of reasons, but they don’t support us,” Bublak said in a phone interview. “Which would make you think perhaps we should be doing a specific tax so that elected officials aren’t in a place to misuse the money or not put it toward the things that we said we would.”
Bublak, who ran for mayor on an anti-tax campaign, said the low public trust concerns her and called for more transparency before voting on a sales tax ballot measure. Turlock does not conduct similar public opinion surveys often, Cooke said, and may have last done one in the early 1990s.
Turlock may have difficulty passing a tax, given that voters in last week’s primary election rejected 122 of 237 local tax and bond measures across the state, according to the California Taxpayers Association, which cited data from county registrars.
Next steps for a ballot measure will be discussed during Tuesday’s council meeting at Turlock’s Yosemite Room at City Hall. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 2:36 PM.
