A survey of 400 Santa Maria residents showed that 60 percent of them would vote yes on a half-cent sales tax increase, as long as the extra funds—approximately $13 million a year—went toward essential city services.
While 31 percent of participants answered no to the survey, which assured all hypothetical funds would stay local with none “taken by Sacramento,” 9 percent of those surveyed said they were undecided.
Conducted by DHM Research, the 15-minute survey was offered in English and Spanish to gauge residents’ reactions to a potential sales tax measure that the Santa Maria City Council is considering putting on the November ballot.
“We tested a variety of priorities that could be funded and voter-supported,” DHM Research Vice President Chelsea Sektnan said at the council’s May 5 meeting. “Because it’s a general use measure, it would be up to the City Council to allocate those funds.”
The research group included 10 proposed uses of funds in the survey for participants to weigh in on. Proposed uses ranged from expanding services for youth and seniors to improving library and city park programs.
For each of the 10 suggested priorities, participants were asked how likely they would be to vote yes on a measure where the new city revenue would go toward that priority.
Of the 400 participants, between 70 and 90 percent said they were more likely to hypothetically vote yes in response to each option, leading DHM Research to conclude that “all proposed uses of funds make voters more likely to support the measure, with no single service or component clearly more influential than the others,” according to the staff report.
“When we did the survey, is this what we told them we would be spending the money on?” Councilmember Gloria Flores asked staff. “Because I don’t want the public to think that we’re going to pass this and then, … everything on here hypothetically is where the money’s going.”
Sektnan clarified that the included uses were specified as priorities that could be funded, under the umbrella of a general use measure, but where the funds go is ultimately up to the council.
Councilmember Gloria Soto said that, as far as she understood the survey, the included hypothetical uses were meant to help the council “get a clearer sense of how we would move forward with a potential ballot proposition.”
Mayor Alice Patino added: “This is going to help us … decide on what we want to put in the measure.”
“I just didn’t want them to think, ‘Oh, this is where the money’s going to go,’ and then we use it a different way,” Flores said.
Patino said she was pleased with the survey results and to hear how many participants would likely favor a half-cent sale tax increase if it led to improving the city service options included.
“I think all those things there are so important to our community,” Patino said.
The council will vote on whether to add the proposed half-cent tax increase measure to the November general election ballot during one of its upcoming meetings in June.
This article appears in May 14 – May 21, 2026.
