Modesto outlines tax increase spending. What’s in the plan for parks, public safety, trees?
Modesto is focused on improving residents’ quality of life in its proposed spending plan for the first full year of revenue from Measure H, the 1% sales tax approved by voters.
City officials last week outlined $26.1 million in Measure H spending for Modesto’s 2023-24 budget year, which starts July 1. The spending includes:
▪ $10.1 million for parks and recreation. Some of the projects include replacing the playgrounds at eight parks, replacing three park bathrooms, renovating the Maddux Youth Center at Cesar Chavez Park, increasing the watering of parks from twice to three times a week, upgrading the security lighting at four parks, resurfacing tennis courts at five parks, and sealing and striping basketball and volleyball courts at 11 parks.
▪ $6.2 million for the Police Department. Some of the spending includes hiring four more park rangers, which will bring the total number to 12, hiring five additional community service officers, hiring an additional animal control officer, hiring a civilian investigator to handle missing-person cases and upgrading and adding more cameras to the downtown entertainment center. The department is allocated 210 sworn officers and has about 20 unfilled positions. The department has struggled for about a decade to fill its police officer positions.
▪ $4.9 million for public works. Some of the projects include adding a tree pruning crew and a forestry crew to help with the backlog in maintenance of city trees. That includes hiring a contractor at $1.55 million to help prune city trees and hiring another contractor at $1.8 million to fix sidewalks, curbs and gutters damaged by tree roots at roughly 500 locations.
▪ $4.1 million for the Fire Department. That includes setting aside $3 million for the eventual replacement of the 84-year-old Fire Station No. 1 in downtown and $1 million for enhancements to the department’s advanced life support service provided by its paramedics.
There also is about $1.7 million in additional proposed Measure H spending across several other city departments, including nearly $152,000 to hire two additional code enforcement officers and nearly $262,000 for the City Attorney’s Office to hire an additional deputy city attorney and a legal secretary to prosecute municipal code violations related to illegal dumping, graffiti, blight and nuisance conditions.
Modesto voters approved Measure H in the Nov. 8 election. The sales tax increase took effect April 1.
Measure H is expected to bring in $41.9 million during the 2023-24 budget year to the city’s general fund budget, which primarily pays for public safety and other basic services. Not including the Measure H funding, the city expects the 2023-24 general fund will be about $184 million. The city expects its total 2023-24 operating budget will be nearly $526 million.
The city also expects to receive $10 million from Measure H in the last quarter of its current budget year, from April 1 to June 30. The City Council has allocated $4.5 million of that for such efforts as public safety, homelessness, parks and reducing blight, leaving $5.5 million.
Closing structural deficit
The city expects to use at least $6.2 million from Measure H to close the 2023-24 general fund’s structural deficit. The city has said the fund has an annual deficit because while its revenues are growing, they are not growing as fast as its expenses. The expenses are primarily employee compensation, including wages, benefits and pensions.
Modesto expects to have about $14 million left over from Measure H in 2023-24. The city proposes to set aside the money to cover the future maintenance costs of the Measure H projects it plans to undertake in its upcoming budget year. The projects include the eight new playgrounds and three new park bathrooms.
City officials discussed the Measure H spending at the City Council’s Finance Committee budget workshops held last week.
Measure H is a general tax, so Modesto can spend it on any of its services. But City Manager Joe Lopez said at the workshops it was important to highlight how Modesto plans to spend the tax to show the public it is spending it as it said it would, on addressing homelessness, blight, parks, public safety and other basics.
The city also is in the process of forming a nine-member citizens oversight board to monitor how the city spends the sales tax increase.
The City Council is expected to hold a public hearing in late May regarding the proposed 2023-24 budget and then adopt the budget in June.
