The fiscal future of Lompoc is now in the hands of its residents.
At its meeting on Sept. 17, Lompoc City Council unanimously voted in favor of holding a 1 percent sales tax increase election on March 3, 2020. If approved by voters, this would raise the city’s sales tax rate to 8.75 percent, which is in line with rates in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.
Approval of the sales tax increase follows the council’s decisions to approve a budget with reductions, including the elimination of several staff positions, in late June to resolve a nearly $3 million deficit.
The city estimates the tax increase would generate close to $5 million in revenue annually over the next 15 years. After that, the sales tax rate would drop back down to 7.75 percent.
If approved, most of the revenue generated during this period would be dedicated to paying off the city’s burgeoning pension debt.
“We’re not going to have an abundance of money coming. We’re just going to be able to put our service levels back to where they should be,” Lompoc Management Services Director Dean Albro said at the council’s Aug. 22 meeting.
According to a presentation from the council’s August meeting, the city owes $93 million to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), and its annual payment continues to increase. At the August meeting, Albro said, the city’s minimum annual payment will soon be $3 million, but it’ll peak at $7 million.
At the September meeting, Councilmember Jim Mosby said that if the measure passes, he’d like to use some of the additional revenue to fill three police officer positions that the city has held vacant over the last few years. But overall, council members emphasized that the tax revenue will primarily be used to maintain the existing level of city services, while making improvements when possible.
Maintaining city services was the focus of much of the meeting, as council members debated the wording for the ballot measure to ensure it accurately reflects how the city will use the funds. Initially, the measure started with just the word “to maintain,” but it now reads “to maintain and improve” before listing different city services.
Prior to voting on the election and ballot language, the council had to unanimously approve a motion declaring a fiscal emergency in order to fast-track the election. Without this move, November 2020 would have been the soonest the election could have taken place, according to a staff report from the meeting.
The council also appointed Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne and Councilmember Victor Vega to a subcommittee that will draft language for an argument in support of the measure, which will appear on the ballot.
—Zac Ezzone
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 3, 2019.