Supporters of a city-sponsored tax measure have been holding a series of public events recently in order to draw attention to what many believe is the importance of its passage next month.
Measure Y would increase Culver City’s sales tax a half of a percent. City leaders say it is necessary in order to offset budget shortfalls that could jeopardize municipal services.
On Saturday, Oct. 13 beginning at 9:30 a.m.proponents of the tax measure are planning to gather at Veterans Park and embark upon a citywide walk where they will pass out flyers to residents and businesses encouraging them to support the ballot initiative.
There have also been fundraisers at various locations to drum up support for the ballot initiative.
“Every year our money goes to Sacramento and then it disappears,” said Scott Zeidman, one of the walk’s organizers. “This is a way for Culver City to help ourselves without Sacramento.
“I would have a hard time supporting a Sacramento half sales tax, but I have no problem supporting a Culver City half sales tax.”
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir said the proposition if approved, is expected to bring approximately $8 million.
Confronted with a projected $8 million deficit, the city council proposed placing a half-cent tax hike over 10 years before the voters on July 17.
Municipalities are turning more and more to tax themselves or creating assessment districts as in order to generate revenue for their cities. Unlike many lawmakers in the federal government, local lawmakers-who belong to both major political parties but run and frequently govern as nonpartisans- look at raising taxes with trepidation but are more apt to do so when faced with fiscal emergencies or crises.
City Manager John Nachbar said municipalities often look to a variety of revenue generating sources during difficult economic times. “It is common for cities to increase revenues during a fiscal crisis, usually after major expenditure reductions have been accomplished, like we have done,” Nachbar told the News after the meeting.
Michael Coleman, an expert on California local government revenues, spending and financing, said local tax measures tend to sprout during presidential elections, when there are typically more voters. He also says bond measures and propositions to raise local levies tend to be more successful than statewide measures where often a two thirds approval is required.
“All politics is local, so (local propositions) often depend on what’s going on locally,” said Coleman, the principal fiscal policy advisor to the League of California Cities.
Since 2001, while more than half of the state’s proposed local bond and special tax measures have failed to reach the two thirds threshold, three out of five of the measures have garnered 55% approval, according to the website www.californiacityfinance.com.
The Legislature’s decision to dissolve the state’s nearly 400 redevelopment agencies took away an important revenue stream from cities, many California mayors and city councils have stated. And while recent employment figures indicate that the national economy is growing, many municipalities will still face fiscal challenges for the next few years.
Measure Y also has the support of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce, an organization that does not generally support tax measures.
“Because of the theft of (local) funds by the state, the chamber believes in replenishing those funds,” replied Culver City Chamber of Commerce President Steven Rose when asked why his organization has decided to back the tax initiative.
Rose was referring to the elimination of the redevelopment agencies as well as past actions by Sacramento legislators, including taking away funds from the state’s gasoline tax to help close budget shortfalls.
Supporting the initiative is “about having more trust and influence at the local level than having trust and influence at the state level,” said Rose.
Zeidman knows something about cities that vote to tax themselves for a broader and longer term benefit. He was the most prominent face of Measure EE, a Culver City property tax measure passed in 2009 that generated $1.5 million over five years in order to offset reductions to education at the state level.
“Measure EE proved that if we do a local tax it stays local,” said Zeidman, who during the property tax measure campaign was the president of the Culver City United School District’s Board of Education.
Rose pointed out that municipal governing bodies often occupy dual functions as opposed to the national scene, where the distinct branches of government- legislative, executive and judicial- have clear, delineated boundaries.
“As you get closer to the public, city councils are legislative but they also get into their executive part of governing because they are usually in charge of at least some city departments,” the chamber president noted.
Like Rose, Zeidman is a Culver City native and he thinks his hometown neighbors realize what could be at stake if Measure Y fails. “The Culver City electorate is well-educated and well-informed,” he said.
According to the walk’s organizers, current members of Culver City’s governing body, members of the CCUSD school board and others.
Measure Y joins other statewide tax measures on the November ballot, including Propositions 30 and 38.
Prop. 30 would allocated 89 % of the temporary tax revenues to which to K-12 schools and 11% to community colleges, such as West Los Angeles College near Culver City. The latter initiative would not directed funds to community colleges but 60% of the revenue would go to K-12 schools, 10% to early childhood programs and 30% toward paying down California’s debt.
Election day is Nov. 6.
