The Santa Barbara Vintners has spent two years and undisclosed funds trying to craft a Business Improvement District (BID).
The good news is their latest proposal—1 percent assessment on all California direct to consumer sales—has dropped two of its more objectionable suggestions: using BID funds to market to the trade (grocery stores, wine shops, hotels, and restaurants) without assessing trade sales; and using BID funds for advocacy.
The bad news is they are proposing to use 46.5 percent, or $465,000, of the BID funds for “salaries, overhead, and reserve.”
The other bad news is the Vintners is trying to force wineries who have chosen not to join the Vintners to assess their consumers 1 percent of their wine sales for the Vintners’ benefit. There are 270 plus or minus bonded wineries in Santa Barbara County. The Vintners’ website lists 78 members. The BID statute uses the weighted vote of consumer sales for voting, which means the 20 or so large wineries will decide this issue for all 250 wineries.
One would hope that the 20 or so large wineries would think long and hard before using their weighted vote to compel the 192 wineries who have not voluntarily joined the Vintners to assess their customers 1 percent of their wine sales for the Vintners’ benefit.
Stephen Pepe
Lompoc
This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2020.