Modesto tax increase will go only so far. How will the city balance its needs?
Now comes the hard part for Modesto — how to spend $39 million annually on public safety, homelessness, blight, parks, trees, sidewalks and other basics after voters approved Measure H, the city’s 1% sales tax on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The decisions could be difficult because the city’s needs exceed Measure H’s revenues. For instance, the city says it has $74 million in deferred maintenance among its 76 parks and has eliminated 77 police officer positions since the Great Recession of more than a dozen years ago. The Police Department now is allocated 210 officers.
“We are not going to have enough (revenue) to solve all of the problems of the city so we have to decide what we can do effectively,” Councilman Chris Ricci said. “We know the people are going to hold us accountable. They are going to expect us to do well, (and) we are going to.”
The tax increase will go into the city’s $171.4 million general fund. About 80% of the fund is spent on public safety, with the rest spent on parks and other basics.
City officials say while general fund revenues are growing they are not growing as fast as expenses.
The city has balanced the fund in a number of ways. It’s kept open positions unfilled, postponed maintenance and reduced services. Those reductions have included less traffic enforcement, more locked park bathrooms that have been repeatedly targeted by vandals, and delays in additional years before crews trim city trees.
City Manager Joe Lopez has said that without more revenue, the city faced more cuts, with the brunt in public safety.
Increase effective April 1
Measure H won’t take effect until April 1, according to state law, and will increase Modesto’s sales tax from 7.875% to 8.875%.
Mayor Sue Zwahlen said she plans to hold a City Council workshop to start the discussions on how to spend Measure H. She said that could happen in February or March. Like all council workshops, it would be open to the public and residents can comment.
She first wants to hold a January workshop as an orientation and refresher for the council. The seven-member council has three new members with the Nov. 8 election of Eric Alvarez, Nick Bavaro and Jeremiah Williams.
Zwahlen said it’s early to talk about spending priorities. She said the Nov. 8 election has not yet been certified.
But Measure H has a commanding lead with not many votes left to count. The Stanislaus County election office reported Thursday the measure had 29,085 votes, or 62.8%, in support vs. 17,235 votes, or 37.2%, against it. The measure needs a simple majority to pass.
The office reported it had counted 118,259 ballots in races throughout the county and had about 14,000 remaining to process and count.
Zwahlen said residents tell her they are most concerned about quality-of-life issues, including the condition of parks and the city’s trees, helping homeless people get off the streets, and public safety. She said residents also want more traffic enforcement. Lopez has said the Police Department has reduced its traffic safety unit from 21 officers to five since the Great Recession.
80 mph on Pelandale
Ricci said he will want to hear from department directors in deciding how to spend Measure H.
“I want to know the additional budget allocation they are looking for and what problem they can solve with that allocation and the benefit to the community,” he said. “... People are driving 80 mph down Pelandale Avenue all the time. We have four traffic officers right now. Can we stop that if we have 10 traffic officers or do we (make a bigger impact on residents’ lives) with more gang officers?”
Zwahlen said it is her understanding that department directors are analyzing costs and needs.
Councilman David Wright said his priorities include hiring more police officers. But he said that will take some time and the council needs to make sure Modesto’s compensation is adequate to hire and keep good officers.
Modesto Police Officers Association President Dan Starr said in a recent story that eight of the 210 officer positions are frozen and 26 are open and unfilled, leaving the Police Department with 34 vacancies.
Wright said his other priorities include hiring more park rangers and homeless outreach specialists to make parks safer. He added he would like to see the city hire tree trimming companies to help reduce the maintenance backlog in the city’s urban forest just as it did last year with some of its federal pandemic relief funding.
Bavaro, who was elected to the council Nov. 8, said he wants more police officers and firefighter paramedics. “The No. 1 priority for me is public safety,” he said.
But he also wants the city to improve its parks, trim more trees and do more to help homeless people. “People want to see us invest this money in improving the community,” Bavaro said.
Board will monitor spending
The City Council is required by June to appoint a nine-member oversight board to review how Measure H is spent, according to the ordinance the council approved when it voted to place the measure on the ballot.
As a general tax, Modesto can spend Measure H on any service it provides. But city officials say the tax will be spent on such basics as public safety, parks and homelessness.
The board will consist of one member from each of the council’s six districts and three at-large members. The ordinance states that in selecting members the council “shall give strong preference to members that represents a cross-section of the community.”
The board will make public reports to the council and hold public meetings.
Modesto spokesman Andrew Gonzales said no city officials were available for an interview. But he released a statement from the city manager:
“While I am certainly pleased with the passage of Measure H, this is by no means a celebration. Now the real work begins in determining how we can use these funds that have been entrusted to us. We will work diligently to create plans that are sustainable yet provide the resources our community has stated it wants.
“I look forward to working with the oversight committee to ensure there is full transparency in allocating the funds in the way that meets the intent of Measure H.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
