The Woodland City Council unanimously adopted a resolution approving the placement of a one-cent sales tax measure on the Nov. 5, 2024, general municipal election to increase funding for public safety, road rehabilitation, and addressing homelessness, park maintenance and youth services.
The measure would raise the city's current tax rate by 12.5% moving it from 8% to 9%.
The council's Tuesday meeting marked the second time the ballot measure was brought to the council within the last month. Although each councilmember acknowledged the benefits the revenues from the measure would have as the city faces a projected $3.2 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year and a forecasted $5.48 million deficit in the next five years, some cautioned against raising taxes on a community already dealing with inflation, higher electricity rates and general cost increases.
The sales tax, as recommended in the city staff report, was projected to provide roughly $16.5 million annually for 10 years. However, a motion by Councilwoman Mayra Vega to amend the resolution changing the length of time of the sales tax to eight years means that the city will instead receive roughly $13.2 million, assuming its revenues remain consistent each year.
Furthermore, the sales tax would help address the fact that the city currently operates with considerably fewer employees than its comparable counterparts in Yolo County. Woodland has 313 total full-time employees while Davis and West Sacramento have 376 and 425, respectively.
Spencer Bowen, communication and strategic policy manager, explained that local state taxes in a jurisdiction cannot exceed 2% total and can only be raised in multiples of 0.125 annually.
Additionally, he noted that Davis is also discussing a one-cent sales tax measure that would increase the city's tax rate from 8.25% to 9.25%.
"This truly isn't a, 'We need to pass this or else we cut things,' this is an option to support higher quality services, which we have heard is a priority for folks," Bowen stressed. "It's a consideration of, 'Should we give the community an opportunity to vote on this,' if we want to fund these things that we've heard are important."
When speaking about how the tax measure would help the city hire more staff, Bowen used the police department as an example of how the tax measure could help improve public safety in the city.
"Just on sworn officers for their public safety, West Sacramento has significantly more than us," he emphasized. "We're operating with the same amount of staffing as we did when the town was roughly half the size. For better or for worse, local governments don't have a whole lot of tools to raise revenues that will stay local and fund these services, and this is one of them."
He highlighted that hiring more public safety staff would improve emergency response times arguing, "If we had more folks and better technological resources to better respond… that would help us cut down those times."
"For a lot of folks, that is the bread and butter of local government," he added. "Responding quickly and protecting them from scary situations, whether it's a fire or a health emergency. This would allow us to keep up with population growth and changing challenges in a way that helps us deliver those services at a high quality but also at a speed and rapidity that our residents expect and deserve."
Although the city has not evaluated how the funds would be spent given that it is still only a proposed ballot measure, Bowen said the funds would likely lead to staff hires in other departments.
Assuming the city's revenue projections for the sales tax is correct, that would mean a roughly $270 increase in annual costs for the average Woodland citizen. A significant portion of that would be offset by sales from out-of-town individuals, but the city has not calculated that.
Bowen addressed this by stating that the city doesn't "want to minimize that day-to-day costs are high for everyone right now."
"We pay energy bills and have expenses too so the city, as an entity, feels that pain as well and we by no means want to minimize the impact that taxes have on people's day-to-day budgets," he sympathized. "We just think it's worthwhile for our elected representatives to get a chance to discuss if this is something we should put before the voters."
Furthermore, the report explained that decades of deferred investment and lack of proactive maintenance of the more than 200 lane miles of roads within the city have resulted in over $150 million in roadway maintenance needs.
"At the current pace of investment and growing cost of road construction work, the city will not be able to adequately address these maintenance needs," the report added.
If enacted, it will take effect in April 2025 with the city receiving its first revenues from the tax in June 2025.
Councilman Tom Stallard, who was absent from the council's previous meeting when the sales tax was originally discussed, delivered a statement arguing that the "threshold question isn't whether we should enact a 1% sales tax, but whether we are completely satisfied with our community as it is or if we want it to be better."
"It takes revenue to improve and expand important services," he continued. "Much of what we have today is a direct result of voters approving prior sales tax measures. Our neighboring communities are putting similar measures on their ballots because we all find municipal financial resources very tight. Continued progress will require more revenue. The choice is up to the citizens."
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