“How can we charge the people for the use of our park when it is clearly in such bad shape?” Estorga asked in a letter he wrote to the Sun dated Oct. 2.
There’s also an issue with the bleachers. With only one set, Estorga doesn’t think it’s enough. And there’s the $171,000 barbecue pit City Council members paid for in 2005 that Estorga thinks has since gone to waste.
Carter admits that the park has gone unmaintained, and he said that citizens’ concerns don’t go unheard.
“The field is in very poor shape. You might even say abysmal,” Carter said. “Residents, particularly those with kids, are frustrated that the city wasn’t maintaining the park. It’s general fund expense. We’re strapped for money.”
Carter put the situation into perspective. Part of the city’s financial turmoil, he said, has to do with the sales and transient occupancy tax (TOT)—the tax hotels pay to local governments. Guadalupe has no hotels, therefore no TOT.
In comparison to nearby cities, Guadalupe doesn’t make a lot of sales tax either. Sales tax in California is 7.5 percent (it can be higher depending on the city). Guadalupe collects at least 8 percent, only 1 percent of which the city actually gets to spend on what it wants.
Guadalupe gets very low sales tax revenue compared to other nearby cities. According to Carter, the per capita sales tax rates for each city are as follows: Guadalupe gets $43 per year; Santa Maria $193; Lompoc $107; Buellton $400; Solvang $231.
Being only 9 miles away, Santa Maria practically drains the sales tax from Guadalupe because the shopping scene in the tiny city is practically nil. The city’s savior appears to be DJ Farms, now known as Pasadera, the new residential/retail development that Carter hopes will push the city’s population past 10,000 people, which he said is the magic number needed to attract commerce from major retailers.
The new development is making way for at least 800 homes, 250,000 square feet of retail space, and a city park.
“We’ll get the shopping center, but we’re not going to get it until the homes go in,” Carter said. “And most likely we’ll get a hotel, even though we’re not on the freeway.”
And then there are the three measures passed in November 2014, all of which received at least 77 percent voting approval in Guadalupe, Carter said. Measure V eliminated caps on utility fees; Measure X raised the city’s sales tax by a quarter of a percent to 8.25 percent; and Measure W created a business license fee schedule.
Are they helping? Carter thinks they will. At the next City Council meeting on Oct. 27, he’ll present a report showing the package of measures will bring in about $350,000 of revenue on an annual basis.
The city could also rake in the proceeds of from a piece of land worth $695,000, acquired through a land deal with the DJ Farms project, Carter added.
“We’re always going to be struggling for money but hopefully it won’t be as bad as it is now,” Carter said.
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 22-29, 2015.
