Front Page  »  

Morro Bay and Atascadero councils vote in support of sales tax hike

July 15, 2020

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

With most cities in San Luis Obispo County considering tax hikes, the Atascadero and Morro Bay City Councils both voted unanimously Tuesday to place 1 percent sales tax increase measures on their respective cities’ November ballots.

Currently, all seven SLO County cities have sales tax rates of 7.75 percent. Each of the seven cities have adopted their own half percent sales tax in the past.

If approved by a majority of voters, the new ballot initiatives will raise the sales tax rates in Atascadero and Morro Bay to 8.75 percent.

Atascadero officials say additional sales tax revenue is needed for public safety, as well as for infrastructure improvements and city employee salaries. Atascadero has approximately half the national average of police officers for a city its size, according to a staff report.

Morro Bay officials say a 1 percent sales tax increase would generate $1.5-$2 million in new revenue for the city. The city of Morro Bay is currently grappling with a sharp decrease in tourism due to the coronavirus.

The Paso Robles City Council has already given initial approval for a 1 percent sales tax measure, and it is expected to formally place the initiative on the November ballot at its meeting next week.

Additionally, the Grover Beach and San Luis Obispo city councils will discuss 1 percent sales tax increase measures at their upcoming meetings. Both the Grover Beach and SLO councils are likely to vote to place the tax increase measures on the November ballot.

Last fall, Grover Beach City Manager Matthew Bronson said, despite the city receiving more than 10 percent of its revenue from its new marijuana tax, there were ongoing police and fire staffing needs, which could be addressed by a tax measure. Also last fall, the city of SLO released the results of a survey that found 63 percent of residents were at least leaning toward supporting a ballot initiative that would raise the sales tax by 1 percent.

Grover Beach and SLO were two of several local cities that had been considering placing tax increase measures on the November 2020 ballot months prior to the coronavirus crisis, which has wreaked havoc on municipal budgets.

A sales tax initiative also came before the Arroyo Grande City Council, but council members were split 3-2, causing the proposal, which requires a 4-1 vote, to fail.


Loading...
Related:


20 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Voters in Atascadero and Morro Bay – look at what AG did.


Stop feeding the hogs – they will not stop eating until the trough is empty.


26

UP UP and Away The answer is always lets get more money and not see where we are wasting it. Trash costs up no out to bid contract water up said need more for upkeep. Put the water in plastic bowel and look at it 2 days later and see all the green and brown junk in it.,electricity out of site,gas prices never really dropped in relation to use in Covid crisis but watch it skyrocket when things get better, prop tax’s go up ever yr, house ins way up due to fires from PGE DMV fees costs more than some cars are worth could go on and on so you want to raise tax;’s but I on fixed income never get a raise if I need it to stay a float. If you vote for a tax increase like you did for state gas tax you are !!!! than I thought


35

There will also be a proposition on the ballot to repeal Prop 23 for commercial properties. Of course it’s not called Repeal Prop 13, it’s named to do with Education. If the state is successful in repealing the commercial aspect you can darn well bet the repeal of residential tax limits is next!


12

If prop 13 gets removed, I’m guessing that property values will go down immediately 25-30 percent.


Just a hunch


4

The cities that are wanting to put a sales tax increase on the ballot are ones that had financial problems before Covid took place. The never let a catastrophe go to waste playbook gets dusted off and here we are! The Arroyo Grande Council couldn’t get the votes to put their measure on the ballot, they must of woke up and realized that the voters wouldn’t pass it and they would look like horses asses for trying to shove it down their constituents throats! Hopefully the other cities that are trying to pass sales tax increases wake up and smell the stench that they are trying to create.

Yes Covid has effected government entities, businesses and individuals alike, but for one group to try and pillage the others doesn’t have a ring of fairness to it:(


31

They can not smell the stench, because all they can smell is money, mo money.

And as long as the tax-payers continue to provide them with mo money – nothing else matters. The only answer is to stop providing them with mo money.


As I commented before – the hogs will only stop eating when the trough is empty – don’t keep filling it up.


15

the mantra is “public safety” – take the A town lead, they apparently have already defunded the police.


10

I heard that Morro Bay City employee’s took a 5-8 percent pay cut. While I don’t agree that budgets should be balanced on the backs of employees, I don’t feel 5-8 percent is sufficient. There should be a temporary 10-20 percent cut. City employees must share in the economic pain of their respective communities, not dabble in if with a minor, token pay cut. Especially for managers making well into the 6 figures.


31

Sounds good, but… the administrative assistant making $15/hour is going to feel it more than the administrator or cop making $125k/year. We to have bigger pay cuts for employees at the top of the food chain and no pay cuts for people at the bottom.


3

Morro Bay government has laid off nearly 100 workers, most (over 70) were part time recreation employees, (i.e. umpires, referees, scorekeepers, rec class teachers, etc.), they also left a handful of vacant jobs unfilled, and laid off about a half dozen full time employees, including the recreation director, assistant city engineer and some office help.


So the City has made cuts. There isn’t a lot of fat on the bones in Morro Bay.


Consider this, in 1992, the City’s general fund budget was a little over $6 million; with about 117 full time equivalent employees; and a population of about 10,300+/-.


Today, the general fund budget is nearly $13M; there’s about 97 FTE employees; and a population of 10,400+/-.


I try not to begrudge people what they make, but to more than double the tax revenues and in turn the spending, have fewer employees and a stagnant population in little over one generation, and still not have enough money for essential services, is most curious.


The City was sitting fat on about $4M in GF reserves before the pandemic. It’s blown through half of it already and is projecting to have real deficits in just two years that could run to a few million a year by 2025.


The growth in revenues/expenses is mind boggling in comparison to the lethargic growth in population.


1

How about exposing the cities budgets to the public and let the public recommend where to make cuts instead of simply blindly raising taxes? Too embarrassing for the politicians? Nothing can be cut? Doubtful. But when the mob demands the police budget be cut it’s no problem. We’ll get on that immediately Mr Mob sir! Gutless, phony, fakes. Useless as decision makers, managers. Place no trust in any politician at any level.


36

This comment is hilarious. Mostly because if you wanted to look at the budget, it is available for viewing. SLO, for example, go knock yourself out: https://www.slocity.org/government/department-directory/finance-and-it/online-documents


Or maybe you’re talking about exposing the deep-state budgets? Now I can’t help you with that…


-5

The budgets are available to the public, but good luck trying to understand it unless you have an MBA in accounting or something. San Luis Obispo’s is 516 pages long!


7

Why not just bump it up to an even 10%? Or better yet, 50% – they’d totally cover all those well-earned retirement packages. Wouldn’t want those good folks who gave SO MANY YEARS to be relegated to eating cat food, now, do we?


Heck, why not just take all 100% of everything, then have the wise people figure out what we should have, and they can then redistribute it as they see fit? That sounds like a utopia to me!


25

No from me. I already pay too much in taxes.


30

Increasing taxes on people forced out of work and with depleted incomes. Have you no shame?


39

” Have you no shame?”


No, they don’t. Or respect for the voters, either. Don’t now, never have, and never will.


10
1 2