Recent Santa Barbara County survey results showed that cost of living and financial security concerns would hold many voters back from voting in favor of any additional sales tax this election.
“There’s a level of trust we need to build before we ask [voters] for more money,” 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson said during the April 4 Board of Supervisors meeting. “It’s going to be a challenge to be successful here; the only way you get successful is you really go out there and do an education on what you are providing and what controls [you would] put in place.”
With the most recent five-year forecast identifying potential budgetary shortfalls, Santa Barbara County wanted to explore a new tax measure that would benefit the county’s general fund and an additional special tax dedicated to county libraries. However, the Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected adding tax measures to the November ballot after seeing minimal voter support in survey results.
“Ordinarily, I would be all for using public resources this way, but there’s a time and a place,” 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps said. “I believe if we moved forward on these, we would actually be moving backwards with the public and trust.”
In 2023, Santa Barbara County hired Fairbank, Maslin, Maulin, Metz, and Associates Research (FM3 Research)—an opinion, research, and strategy firm—to conduct surveys to examine voter attitudes toward three potential tax measures: a 1 cent general sales tax in the unincorporated county area that would be used for general county purposes; a quarter-cent countywide library special tax; and a countywide library $60 special parcel tax.
“While those finances are stable, our existing revenue sources are not likely to be sufficient to cover all our unmet needs in particular and maybe even keep fully pace with our labor and cost increases,” County Deputy Executive Officer Britanny Odermann said. “A new sales tax revenue could provide the county with the opportunity to address potential shortfalls and constraints and other infrastructure.”
General tax measures require four out of five supervisors to approve the measure for the ballot and a simple majority vote, Odermann said. Special taxes require three out of five supervisors’ approval and two-thirds voter approval.
The 1 cent general tax measure could generate more than $15 million in county general revenue, a quarter-cent library special tax would also generate $15 million for the county’s public library systems, and a $60 per parcel tax would generate about $8 million, Odermann said.
While 6 in 10 surveyed voters reported that the county had “great” or “some” need for additional funds, high costs of living and rising food, gas, and housing prices dropped voter support to less than 50 percent—similar to what FM3 has seen in other surveys it’s conducted statewide, FM3 Project Manager Rick Sklarz told supervisors.
“Initially, people like the idea of investing in their community, be it a city, a county, a special district … but as they are confronted with the reality of, ‘OK, money for services is great,’ but then also here’s the rub: You have to pay higher taxes and you have these other concerns going on,” Sklarz said. “What’s interesting in some of our research, the people who are normally the most supportive of these kinds of measures—younger voters under 45—are also the ones feeling more economically stressed and uncertain right now.”
Survey results show that 45 percent of voters would vote no on the 1 cent sales tax and 44 percent would vote no on the library special tax—making it challenging for the county to gain the support it needs for a simple majority and unlikely to achieve a two-thirds majority.
“If you had a bigger cushion or support was higher, we [could go for it]; here the cushion is very marginal to say you should go for it,” Sklarz said.
This article appears in Apr 4-14, 2024.