A proposed one-cent sales tax measure that would increase the city's current tax rate by 12.5% will be discussed by the Woodland City Council during its upcoming meeting.
The council will consider placing the tax measure on the ballot for the Nov. 5, 2024, general municipal election after receiving public comment and discussing the reasonableness of increasing taxes on a community already dealing with inflation, higher PG&E rates and general cost increases.
The draft language for the proposed ballot measure is as follows.
"To keep Woodland safe, clean and well-maintained by increasing police and fire protection, reducing emergency response times, repairing roads and sidewalks, addressing homelessness, improving and maintaining parks, enhancing programs for children and youth and supporting other general government uses, shall the City of Woodland measure enacting a one-cent sales tax, providing approximately $16,500,000 annually for 10 years, be adopted, with independent audits, public spending disclosures, local control and all funds staying in Woodland?"
The report said this language is intended to underscore that these revenues will be used to increase funding for public safety, road rehabilitation, addressing homelessness, park maintenance and youth services.
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%, whereas Woodland's would go from 8% to 9% if passed.
"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."
The sales tax would notably address the fact that the city currently operates with substantially 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.
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."
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 projections of $16.5 million in revenues from 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.
The proposed tax would be limited to a term of 8 or 10 years so that the city can have enough time to implement projects and programs aligned with the intent of the measure. If enacted, it will take effect in April 2025 with the city receiving its first revenues from the tax in June 2025.
The council discussed the ballot measure during its Tuesday, June 4 meeting and were at odds over increasing taxes.
Councilman Rich Lansburgh noted that while some of his colleagues had concerns with raising taxes, "there is never a right time to raise them." He highlighted the need of more police officers noting that the number of officers hasn't increased in over 40 years even though the city's population is three times larger.
"Same thing for the fire department, the library, the roads and with code enforcement," he stated. "So is there ever a good time to ask for taxes? No, of course not but it's a necessity."
Lansburgh also addressed concerns voiced by Councilwoman Victoria Fernandez that lower-economic residents will feel the burden of the tax more arguing that "everybody shares the wealth of this community."
"By that I mean our parks, our officers and our fire department," he remarked. "We have to have top-notch people working for us to deliver those kinds of services. Keep in mind that we have 65 or 67 less employees today than we had in 2008.
However, some councilmembers argued that an additional one-cent sales tax on top of Measure F and Measure R – which are a half-cent and quarter-cent sales tax, respectively – and other additional costs residents are dealing with would not be reasonable at this time.
Councilwoman Mayra Vega said Lansburgh's comment that there's never a right time to raise taxes resonated with her, but said she believes that "now is not the right time."
"I was talking to some folks about increases in homeowners insurance," she said. "These policies are being canceled and these new ones are being written up that are thousands of dollars more."
Additionally, she noted that Mello Roos taxes are increasing by 2% for people living in the Spring Lake area, which she represents.
"It's not just the individual potential sales tax, it's adding it on to everything," she stressed. "PG&E rate increases are also happening this year so I would say that looking to push it out to 2026 might be something that we should consider."
Councilwoman Victoria Fernandez was undecided highlighting the need for the sales tax while expressing concern for residents who have been dealing with inflation and general cost increases.
"Maybe one cent doesn't seem like a lot, but when you add up the one cent for all the things that I buy at Target it adds up," she emphasized. "On the other hand, I realize that it's just one penny and together that one penny makes a difference because look at what we've done with a half-cent or one-cent tax in our community. The city succeeds because of the people that work for it and I truly believe that the staff should be compensated for the work and the quality of work that they do."
However, she noted that voter turnout will be greater in 2024 because of the presidential election leading to a higher likelihood of the sales tax ballot measure passing.
"If we as a community believe that that is something that we need… then now is the time because it is a presidential election and you have a higher voter turnout," she expressed. "We all want to maintain that level of service but I do believe that we need the revenue if we want to maintain those services."
The council instructed staff to conduct outreach in both English and Spanish so that community members could voice their support or concerns regarding the ballot measure.
During its upcoming meeting, the council will either amend the resolution to modify the amount of the tax, the duration of the tax, the amount and the duration of the tax, or take no action and defer the tax measure to a future ballot.
Public comments can be submitted prior to the council's Tuesday, June 18 meeting to CouncilMeetings@cityofwoodland.gov. Written comments received at least two hours prior to the scheduled start time of the meeting will be provided to the council and posted to the city website as part of the official record of the meeting but will not be read into the record.
For more information on how to comment and to view the agenda, visit cityofwoodland.gov/654/Meetings-Agendas.
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