Guadalupe residents pulled together to push their city back from the brink of losing its cityhood on Nov. 4, with more than 70 percent of voters backing three measures to increase revenue pouring into the city’s general fund.
Perhaps pouring is too strong a word. The measures should add an extra $300,000 or more to the city’s revenue stream, at least eventually. Voters opted to increase the city’s sales tax by 0.25 percent; remove the utilities tax cap, which was at $2,500 a year; and change the city’s business licensing fee structure.
The measures’ passage should close the gap in the city’s budget, which is currently about $335,000 in the red. Guadalupe’s current mayor, Frances Romero, said the changes will save the city.
“If the measures don’t pass, we’re not in for a good ride,” Romero said at an election night get-together on Nov. 4.
The gathering was held for mayoral candidate Gina Rubalcaba-Almaguer, who Romero said “understands what’s gone wrong in the past and that we continue to do it.”
It’s been a rocky year for the city. In May, the deficit numbers came out, along with the realization that the city had made up for general fund deficits in the last 15 years by moving over money from special funds.
Rubalcaba-Almaguer, who still has two years left in her term on the Guadalupe City Council, ultimately lost to John Lizalde, whose term on the council ends this year and he will take over as mayor in 2015. In the city’s council race, former council members Virginia Mora Ponce and Ariston Julian, who both left office in 2012, will be taking seats on the dais once again in 2015.
They beat out Joice Earleen Raguz to fill the two vacant seats. Lizalde, Mora Ponce, and Ariston didn’t return the Sun’s requests for comment on their wins.
Rubalcaba-Almaguer was upbeat about the outcome of the election before the results came out.
“If I don’t win, I’m still in,” she said with a laugh. “It’s not going to stop me from helping our city.”
This article appears in Nov 6-13, 2014.
