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September 2024 Spotlight:

Public Safety Sales Tax Ballot Measure

Hello Gilroy!

This month let’s focus on the upcoming ballot measure for a ¼ of a cent sales tax to be fully dedicated to public safety in Gilroy. Convincing myself to support this measure took a considerable amount of work, comparing our existing revenue sources to the level of public safety services (police, fire, medical response) we can afford and taking into account where else we spend General Fund monies. I am of the general opinion that too much of our hard-earned dollars already go to taxes, and that all levels of government should function within their jurisdictional boundaries and within the revenue they receive based on those boundaries. I also believe that housing and commercial development should be balanced within any community so that revenues from the latter can help support the costs of the former. However, we in Gilroy, like so many other California cities, are subject to state housing mandates that fail to recognize the impacts on more rural communities. In the meantime, our residents and businesses deserve safer neighborhoods and better response times than we can provide.  

While the City of Gilroy has been reluctant over the last 20 years to put tax measures on the ballot, our pocket books are invaded just the same through tax measures by other jurisdictions (such as County Measures A and B, and bond measures for the Gilroy Unified School District and Gavilan College). As a city, we can’t get what we need unless we, too, ask for it. As difficult as it is to add burden to our residents and businesses, it’s our duty to tell you what we need in order to meet your expectations from our public safety services.  

As a CPA for most of my life, I am proud to help us all understand exactly what comprises our existing revenues, how those revenues are spent within the General Fund (as opposed to special funds that earmark revenue for specifically related expenses, such as water/sewer), how much of the General Fund goes to City services and which ones, and what it would take to increase those service levels. 

Join us on Saturday, October 12th at 9:30am in the PD Community Room for Conversation and Coffee with the Mayor for a healthy discussion on Measure C and why this subject deserves your genuine consideration. Also present will be representatives from both the Gilroy Police Department and Gilroy Fire Department. Share your thoughts and be part of the solution that ultimately benefits us all.

Mayor Marie Blankley, CPA

Gilroy’s history is not one of frequent tax measures on the ballot. In fact, the last tax measure passed for the City of Gilroy was over 20 years ago to build the library and the police station, both assets that our community desperately needed. Should we wish to build a community center, a similar bond measure will have to be put before the voters, just like the bond measures put before you by Gilroy Unified School District and Gavilan College to build/rebuild facilities. In contrast, the Sharks Ice Gilroy facility will be built with revenue bonds and paid for by the Sharks organization as opposed to Gilroy taxpayers. 

Like the condition of our streets when I first took office, our public safety service levels have been gradually declining, a function of increased demands on our personnel not only from population growth but also from types of service calls that we’re unable to mitigate on our own, such as the lag in response time from our county ambulance service, and state laws that no longer recognize certain crimes as felonies and allow for repetitive offenses. To help us better meet today’s challenges, Measure C will be on your ballots this November to ask to raise our sales tax by ¼ of a percent to generate approximately $4.5 million per year that will go solely to our police and fire departments and may not be diverted in the future for a different use. Measure C also provides that existing levels of public safety funding may not be altered and replaced with the revenue of this measure, assuring for us all (and through the oversight of a Citizen Advisory Committee) that this revenue will be in addition to the public safety funding we have today.

Measure C is a ¼ of a cent sales tax increase that will go entirely to police, fire and medical response. This is not a tax on your home, property, food, or prescription medications. It is a sales tax on purchases paid by residents and nonresidents alike. In fact, about 50% of the estimated $4.5 million it will generate annually will come from visitors. Gilroy’s current sales tax rate is 9.125%, of which the City receives only 1 percentage point of that 9.125%, with the remaining 8.125% going to state and county jurisdictions. The additional ¼ percent asked by Measure C will go entirely to the City of Gilroy. For Measure C to pass, it must be approved by 2/3 vote. Had the City Council made this a tax measure requiring only a simple majority to pass, we would not have been able to ensure that the proceeds would go ONLY to public safety services. Measure C requires an independent Citizen Oversight Committee with strict accountability to ensure that funds are spent as authorized and properly disclosed to the public each year. If approved, the additional tax will go into effect in April 2025, and the allocation would be 40% for the Police Department (about $1.8 million annually), 35% for the Fire Department (about $1.6 million annually), and 25% for public safety infrastructure (about $1.1 million annually). 

Our Existing Revenue and Where it Goes

The “General Fund” is what city government calls the pot of money that is not required to be spent on specific expenditures. For example, money collected for water and sewer does not go into the General Fund because it is earmarked for water and sewer-related expenses, as is the case for money designated for streets, parks and other capital improvements collected from developers, grants, and specific tax revenues. The City Council has discretion over how to spend the money in the General Fund, and this discretion is hashed out in each two-year budget cycle in open view of the public and becomes city staff’s direction for spending based on the vote of the Council majority. The highest percentage of the general fund goes to our police and fire departments.

Keeping in mind that the fully loaded cost of a single police officer or firefighter/paramedic is about $300K and $230K per year, respectively, it’s clear that the $4.5 million of Measure C will not stretch as far as we’d like, but it will stretch to more than we can afford today and help our police and fire departments bring you safer neighborhoods and better response times. Below are the revenue sources of the General Fund for our most recent fiscal year, followed by how the Council directed city staff to spend them.

General Fund Revenue, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2024

(Actual Amount in millions $)

General Fund Expenditures, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2024

(Actual Amount in millions $)

To direct the allocation of revenue from Measure C, the Sales Tax Ordinance adopted by the City Council includes an implementation plan that sets forth the following specific permitted uses. The implementation plan is found in Section 22.45 and states:

22.45 Permissible uses: Implementation Plan.

(a) The revenues of the tax shall only be used to fund the following uses and purposes. Funding with tax revenues of all other uses and purposes, except as provided in subsections (c) through (e) of this section, is prohibited.

1. Law Enforcement, Police and Public Safety.

 i. Law enforcement and police patrol services;

 ii. Police traffic safety and enforcement services;

 iii. Gang enforcement, school resource services, and violence reduction;

iv. Police support services, including equipment and the financing thereof;

v. Mental health response teams, services and resources.

2. Firefighting, Paramedics, Wildfire Risk Reduction and Public Safety.

i. Maintain firefighter and paramedic staffing levels to maintain rapid 9-1 -1

emergency response times;

ii. Hire additional firefighters and paramedics to staff fire stations;

iii. Establishment of additional paramedic units within the Fire Department,

including advanced life support paramedic teams;

iv. Purchase of specialized equipment for Fire Department use and the

financing thereof; 

v. Programs and services to reduce wildfire risk, including early fire alerts,

evacuation planning, defensible space inspections and vegetation management;

vi. Mental health response teams, services and resources.

3. Public Safety Infrastructure.

i. Maintain, enhance, construct, and/or relocate fire and/or police stations and facilities (including, but not limited to, land acquisition, facilities design, and use of temporary facilities) and the financing thereof.

The funding allocation outlined in the implementation plan is 40% to item 1 above, 35% to item 2, and 25% to item 3.

I hope the foregoing information gives you enough “meat” to chew on as you ask yourselves whether or not our public safety service levels deserve your support before more of our pocketbooks are taken for everything except our own City of Gilroy. Together, we are the City of Gilroy, and we’re worth it!