Hollister
– The city will ask voters for the second time in a year to
consider a 1 percent sales tax increase.
Hollister – The city will ask voters for the second time in a year to consider a 1 percent sales tax increase.
The City Council unanimously approved the election Monday while declaring that continued service cuts would create an emergency threat to public health and safety.
If approved by a majority of local voters in the Nov. 6 election, the measure would increase the sales tax in Hollister from 7.25 to 8.25 percent. The tax would end after five years, and a citizens’ oversight committee would ensure that the money is spent responsibly, City Manager Clint Quilter said.
At Monday’s meeting, Quilter described the effects of Hollister’s structural budget deficit, including the loss of the fire department’s ladder company one-third of the time and the elimination of “virtually all of our community policing activities.”
With the completion of the wastewater treatment plant and the end of the building moratorium slated for December 2008, Quilter said Hollister’s financial prospects are brightening, but the government won’t see increased revenues right away.
“It doesn’t mean it’ll never happen, but it’s not going to happen for a number … of years and years and years,” he said.
The election will cost $50,000, Quilter said. The tax increase would raise $3.5 million to $4 million per year.
“(The money) must be deposited in the general fund,” he said. “There cannot be a commitment in advance to how money will be spent.”
A similar tax increase, Measure R, was defeated by local voters 52 percent to 48 percent in 2006. Local architect and Planning Commissioner David Huboi led Yes-on-R efforts, and he appeared at Monday’s meeting as the co-chair of a new tax committee. Huboi recalled outlining possible service cuts during the previous campaign, but he said his message might have been lost in all those details.
“Perhaps it was all those facts and figures that disguised the true meaning of the measure,” Huboi said. “I’m asking you to support a plan, a plan I believe will work to protect, restore and strengthen all that is good in our community.”
Other speakers were more grudging in their support of the tax increase.
“I want a guarantee some way or another … that the fire department and police department get taken care of first,” said Hollister resident Felix Solano. “They do a hell of a job.”
Marty Richman said he would vote for a tax increase only if councilmembers pledge they will not “waste” the money on raises and retirement plans for city employees.
“No city this size can survive on the police department and fire department’s retirement program,” Richman said. “We don’t want to buy these people. We just want them to retire comfortably.”
Councilman Doug Emerson said he’s sympathetic to Richman’s complaints but noted that Hollister is already having enough trouble attracting new police officers.
Mayor Brad Pike said that in order to muster support for the increase, local leaders must inspire more confidence among local residents.
“I would encourage the community to give us feedback,” Pike said. “It’s tough when we hear the same segment of the community all the time, but we don’t hear the other portion of it.”
