Lompoc needs more income, and it will not get it through more cuts, as explained by the city’s professional finance staff. It needs the millions of dollars the sales tax can generate. The council was responsible for shelving the sales tax in 2017 and instead took the funds to place it on the ballot and put them into balancing the budget.
Had the sales tax passed then, the city would have been $10 million richer today. Here we are two years later and we still have the same problem of a chronic shortage of funds. The city attorney presented the options for a sales tax in the 2019-20 time frame. It is most obvious to all that we need a sales tax that will generate up to $5 million in needed funds to cover services and to pay down the debt to CalPERS. The best opportunity is before us right now.
The five City Council members need to declare a financial emergency, and there is one, and then vote to place the general 1 percent sales tax on the ballot this November 2019. They will have to get the tax wording approved by the end of August to make this 88-day time frame work. And the tax must be a general sales tax with a 50 percent plus-one voter approval needed, and not a special tax needing a 67 percent approval, which would be harder to get. With this action and approval by the citizens, the city could see a $5 million increase in funds in the 2020 time frame.
The council has to get real and solve our budget shortfalls now, or they will continue to grow in the next years. We have no other choice. There is no downside to the sales tax. Let the citizens vote on it. All other cities have done so and most sales taxes passed. Lompoc cannot afford to lose more valuable people and reduce city services and continue to be a viable city.
Otherwise a city bankruptcy is in Lompoc’s future, and we will become a ward of the county.
Justin M. Ruhge
Lompoc
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 4, 2019.