Unlike 2007, an official opposition group is pushing against supporters of an extension to the city’s 1 percent sales tax, and both sides have launched campaigns with starkly contrasting messages to the public.
Voters face two simple, yet profound considerations:
Does an electorate continually pounded by the economic downtown want to continue investing that additional slice of its discretionary income, and do small businesses sense they can afford the cost?
Or are voters willing and able to invest for another five years, keep the city’s sales tax at 8.25 percent and maintain current levels of staffing – with an emphasis from measure supporters, as in 2007, on dwindling public safety services?
Regardless of the ballot outcome – two-thirds of voters said yes in 2007, right before the recession hit – tax opponent Tod du Bois wants to see productive dialogue this time, especially regarding the economic impact from such a sales tax.
“It’s about educating folks and making sure there’s still debate here, and healthy debate,” said du Bois, who is heading the “No on Measure E” campaign.
Four residents signed campaign documents for the pro-Measure E side, including Brian Malandrone, an information technology professional who represents a majority adult demographic in Hollister – commuters.
Malandrone started the Hollister Neighborhood Watch page on Facebook about a year ago after someone broke into his truck. Then he found out the Hollister Police Department routinely has just three officers patrolling at any given time – a realization he called part of his “natural progression” toward supporting Measure E.
“If you’re not willing to go out and help, it doesn’t solve anything to arm-chair and complain on the Internet and everything,” Malandrone said.
From the pro side, the campaign is focused on the message that Hollister and its $14 million general fund would take a hit of about $3.2 million – nearly a quarter of the general fund budget that pays for most employee costs – without the five-year extension. If the measure fails, Hollister officials have a so-called “austerity” plan in place – put together by City Manager Clint Quilter and approved by council members last December – which would result in, among other cuts, the loss of 10 police officer jobs and seven firefighters.
Mayor Ray Friend and other council members say they are ready to enact the plan if needed. But Friend also remains one of Meausure E’s biggest supporters.
“I have to be on board with it,” Friend said of the austerity plan. “If Measure E doesn’t go through, we don’t have anywhere else to go.”
If Measure E does pass, though, Friend said he wouldn’t support spending all of the revenue on staffing. In the short term, that could still mean layoffs, even with a measure approval.
Friend said the revenue should be “dedicated in a rough manner” with 50 percent toward public safety, 20 percent toward economic development, 20 percent for reserves and the final 10 percent on other general services.
He contended in an interview with the Free Lance that public safety departments have absorbed the “worst impact” from the recession. With the reserve allotment, he pointed out that if the economy doesn’t turn around, the city would need a cushion at Measure E’s expiration or else, he said, “We’re going to be in the same situation” in five years.
As for business growth, Friend underscored a lack of recent success from the Economic Development Corp. of San Benito County – which had received $75,000 annually from the city’s now-defunct redevelopment agency – and the former RDA economic development director. The mayor suggested the city could consider partnering with the Hollister Downtown Association or county chamber of commerce on a new economic development strategy.
“We need to go out and spend some money and attract some people to Hollister,” Friend said.
Support with caveats
Attracting new money to Hollister is of particular interest to the San Benito County Business Council, a nonprofit advocacy group with an increasingly keen eye on local politics and policy related to commerce.
The business council at a recent board meeting unanimously endorsed Measure E, but with a list of caveats. Kristina Chavez Wyatt, the business council executive director, said board members are “disenchanted” with unkempt promises and how city officials spent the Measure T funds, and that there was “hesitation” in supporting Measure E.
“But they feel that with the current austerity plan, it is a very dire picture and we really have no choice,” she said. “We do have an opportunity to work in partnership and have a good relationship with the city and leadership.”
Along with its endorsement, the group added provisions such as forming an oversight committee that includes a business council member and has the ability to audit and take action; developing an economic development and revenue enhancement strategy with measurable objectives; consideration of cost reductions through privatization, outsourcing or consolidation; putting aside money in reserves; and setting out to restructure the budget so there is no need for another renewal.
“If you don’t force the city into a hard position, then you can’t force the bargaining units to negotiate,” she said.
But there is an inherent, prospective roadblock with the business council’s added provisions. If the measure passes, nothing would stop city leaders from ignoring them altogether. Lacking in the equation is a means for accountability – as with the 2007 approval, after which council members approved hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual raises for city employees.
None of the Measure T funds went directly toward economic development, contrary to the mayor’s planned approach for Measure E.
“I can see where the money, in some cases, was kind of squandered,” Friend said.
For du Bois, though, it is more about economic policy than the budget. As a developer, he said he ran into many challenges from the city – he was the builder who pushed to develop the 400 block of San Benito Street, starting around eight years ago.
“Everybody wanted my money but nothing seemed to happen,” he said. “People in the city got promoted and projects failed.”
He said the city’s economic policy for the past decade has been a “disaster” and referred to the sales tax added in the spring of 2008, when combined with the downturn, as a “one-two punch” for local businesses.
The developer, who said he has a half-dozen businesses and half-dozen volunteers on board, pointed out that sales taxes affect lower-income residents more than others.
“Sales taxes are not economically beneficial to the community,” du Bois said.
As for the city budget, he said the opposition group, for now, is not suggesting how to get out of a $3.2 million hole if the measure fails.
“We’re not in a situation where we’re providing solutions at this point and making recommendations on what should be done,” he said.
