LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Lafayette City Council votes for ask for sales tax measure to fight looming deficit


Image SRI presentation

On July 8, the Lafayette City Council held a discussion whether a sales tax increase should be placed on the Nov. 5 ballot. This potential sales tax increase would be to address the annual financial deficit of $2 million that Lafayette will face starting this year. This deficit will occur if Lafayette continues only ongoing operations and does not account for additional expenses such as inflation or wildfire preparedness. A half percent sales tax would keep current operations going while a three quarters percent tax or one percent tax would give additional funding to cover other expenses.

A previous poll by Strategy Research Institute (SRI) had been taken in order to gauge knowledge of Lafayette's financial difficulties and the support among Lafayette voters for different percentages of a sales tax raise. A digital packet was distributed beforehand by SRI with the results of their new tracking poll.

Beginning the discussion was Dr. Gary Manross of SRI, who presented the tracking poll results. It showed that after Lafayette's information campaign, the `Likely Yes' support for a one percent increase rose from 36% to 48%, for a three quarters percent rose from 41% to 50.5%, and for a half percent increase rose from 46% to 55.5%. He also showed that popularity increased with a sunset clause of seven or ten years and a citizens' oversight committee. He stated that SRI would not make a recommendation but that he personally thought that the Council should aim for a one percent tax increase with a seven-year sunset clause and a citizens' oversight committee.

This tracking poll, however, included a new chart that was not in the distributed packet. It detailed the specific levels of support for each percentage of tax increase instead of the broad support for "Up to 1%" that had been provided earlier. In this chart, it was revealed that after being presented different arguments for the tax raise, support for a one percent tax increase dropped from 48% to 42.5% while support for the other options rose.

Next, City Manager Niroop Srivatsa gave a presentation of the City Council Staff Report for July 8. She covered the two potential options for dealing with the deficit budget, either placing a sales tax measure on the November ballot or making cuts to Lafayette's budget. She noted that with the information previously given by SRI, the staff recommendation was for a one percent tax raise with a seven-year sunset and citizen oversight committee.

The City Council members immediately began discussing the new chart in the SRI presentation. In particular, they became increasingly concerned with the one percent tax raise, which peaked at 48% approval and after arguments dropped to 42.5%. Susan Candell stated that a three quarters tax would be safer while providing funds for necessary, non-ongoing projects. Wei-Tai Kwok noted that support increased with outreach and could continue to do so. Mayor Gina Dawson argued perhaps these numbers indicated that they needed to find the right way to present the tax raise to voters. Candell disagreed. "I understand why you're saying you still want to go for the one [percent] but this is too risky to miss. If we miss this, we are," she paused and then continued, "not happy."

John McCormick stated how worried he was over failure and wanted to prioritize a smaller success over a larger failure. Carl Anduri argued that a half percentage with plans to ask the voters if they wanted to fund more projects in the future would be best. The discussion quickly shifted to exclusively half or three quarters percent. While Dawson and Kwok made arguments for the viability of the three quarters percent tax raise, Anduri and McCormick continued to argue for the half percent. "I'm worried if we reach too far, we'll have a disaster," said Anduri. Dawson asked the City staff for recommendation and was informed their previous recommendation came before the new chart and that they currently supported the half or three quarters percent.

Dawson asked what each of the council members thought. McCormick said he thought the half percent for 10 years was the best option. "We can't lose," he said. "I'm just too scared. I want a solid single right now, not a home run." The rest of the council agreed and Kwok moved that the Council direct the staff to prepare a resolution. After arguments from Manross and Mayor Dawson, the committee agreed to seven years instead and the motion was amended to a resolution for a general-purpose half percent tax for seven years with an citizens' oversight committee to be voted on Nov. 5.