Should Turlock raise sales taxes amid financial issues? Measure A lets voters decide
Turlock residents will decide whether the city enacts a three-quarter cent sales tax by voting on Measure A on their November ballots.
If passed by a simple majority, the measure will raise the sales tax rate from 7.875% to 8.625%, generating about $11 million per year until voters repeal or amend it in another election.
The City Council would decide how to spend the revenue locally and unlike a special tax, which requires a two-thirds vote, the funds are not designated for a specific purpose. Proponents and city officials say the general tax can maintain services from roads to public safety; opponents call for cutting costs such as employee pensions instead. The measure comes before voters after Turlock council members froze a total of 35 city jobs in the last two years and called the current budget unsustainable.
As an accountability measure, a five-member citizens’ oversight committee would review how the city spends the tax revenue and publicize its findings. While the committee would advise the council, it would not set funding priorities or plans, according to the measure ordinance. The ordinance would also require Turlock to post annual reports of the tax revenue and spending — both by city staff and an independent auditor — on its website.
The Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters estimated the cost of putting Measure A on the ballot as $75,000, City Manager Toby Wells said, but voter turnout will determine the actual fee.
What happens if the Turlock tax measure fails?
The measure will not affect the current 2020-21 budget, Wells said, because staff did not incorporate estimates in the general fund passed in June. If Measure A passes, he said the city would not receive revenue from the tax until July 2021 after starting to collect it in April.
As for the next fiscal year, Wells said staff will have better budget forecasts in the spring. But referring to current funding freezes in multiple departments, including police and fire chief positions, he said the city may cut more services if the ballot measure fails.
“The budget will be balanced and services reduced in order to make sure we have a balanced budget,” Wells said of the fiscal year beginning July 2021.
Previous efforts to raise a Turlock-specific sales tax narrowly failed in 2004 and 2014. A special half-cent tax for roads failed by 6% six years ago and a half-cent general sales tax would have passed with 131 more votes 16 years ago, according to Stanislaus County voting records. Countywide taxes for transportation and libraries passed in recent years, but Wells said Turlock has never adopted a city sales tax in its history.
To gauge voter interest, Wells and former Interim City Manager Michael Cooke authorized surveys conducted in June and February, respectively. Each time, two-thirds of about 500 respondents said they supported a hypothetical one-cent sales tax, reports by polling company FM3 Research show. The surveys also interviewed residents about community priorities and collectively cost about $70,000, Wells and Cooke told The Bee.
Calls for Turlock Police Department funding
The Turlock Community Priorities Advisory Committee is among the groups that have recommended a sales tax increase. Chairman Jeffrey Lewis said the committee concluded the city cannot create enough funding for requested police services by cutting the budget.
In its report released in May, the committee wrote that without an increase in revenue, the Turlock Police Department will keep shrinking and put public safety in jeopardy. Committee recommendations included hiring an additional 18 officers over nine years, purchasing $675,000 worth of equipment and adding $400,000 to the overtime budget.
While Lewis supported a proposal to raise the sales tax by three cents for one year, two cents for the second year and one cent thereafter, he said Measure A can create some revenue. Acknowledging a sales tax increase would hurt lower-income residents, Lewis said there are few alternatives and encouraged voters to weigh in on the idea.
“A sales tax measure will provide some relief for the city in terms of what needs to be done,” Lewis said. “It will not provide all the relief that is needed, but it will challenge the city council to come together and think about what the future direction of the city can be and should be.”
Measure A opponents propose alternatives
Instead of knocking on doors, volunteers for a campaign called Citizens for No on Measure A are emailing their arguments against the sales tax and looking to buy yard signs. The group raised about $2,000 in its first two weeks, said campaign treasurer Jim Theis, and asks voters to consider whether the City Council can be trusted to spend additional revenue efficiently. Over the last 15 years, Theis said the council has spent down its general fund reserves, which the city estimated to be $10.7 million in June.
Theis suggested city officials look to reduce expenses such as by lowering city employee benefits and pension costs. Turlock paid an average of nearly $24,000 per employee for health insurance in 2018, which was about 2 1/2 times more than the market average in the private sector, according to an analysis by the think-tank Transparent California. Annual pension costs through the California Public Retirement Employees Retirement System are also projected to grow over the next five years, Theis said.
“As a community we need to look at providing the highest level of service at the most efficient cost,” Theis said. “Whatever that takes we ought to be looking at it and be a little bit more creative on our solutions rather than continuing to go to the taxpayer and saying, ‘We want more money.’”
Contracting law enforcement services from the sheriff’s department is one idea Theis and others wrote in county voter guide arguments against the measure. “We should not let local pride stand in the way of serving Turlock citizens,” reads the rebuttal to an argument for Measure A.
Ballots for the general election will be mailed beginning Oct. 5.
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
