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Saratoga residents are being asked to vote in November on a ballot measure that would increase their utility tax by about 5 percent—an average monthly increase of $20 per household.
The Saratoga City Council accepted the report of the Revenue Review Committee at its July 7 meeting and has directed city staff to prepare and submit documents for the measure.
"The utility tax is safe from the state of California. They will not be able to take this money away from us," said Evan Baker, the chairman of the Revenue Review Committee. At a previous public meeting, he had indicated that the committee had looked at a variety of tax options like a sales tax or a parcel tax before settling on the utility-tax option.
Vic Monia, who was also a member of the committee, indicated that putting the utility-tax measure on the ballot was the easiest way of getting feedback from the people.
Councilman Nick Streit promised that he would not let the money be spent on anything other than deferred maintenance. "I want to keep Saratoga special. I guarantee that money will be spent on the infrastructure," said Streit, who has two years remaining in his council term.
Stan Bogosian, the lone dissenting vote on the council, said he was uncomfortable with the utility tax going on the ballot. "I do not think that the proper homework has been done," he said at the meeting. He suggested that the city organize a poll to find out the kind of tax that Saratogans would prefer.
"The only poll I want is the poll in November," said Councilman Norman Kline.
Jeff Schwarz, a member of the West ValleyMission College Governing Board, also spoke at the council meeting and said that he was very sympathetic to the city government in a time of fiscal crisis. "I encourage the council to put the utility-tax measure on the ballot," he said at the meeting.
Mayor Ann Waltonsmith indicated at the discussion that it would cost the city a lot more to poll the citizens once and then put the utility-tax measure on the ballot later.
The discussion was preceded by a presentation by the Revenue Review Committee that went into the details of city operations and the deferred-maintenance bill that had been piling up over the years.
Baker talked about the revenue loss over the last 15 years at the presentation. He said that the city had been hard hit by the reduction of revenue from vehicle-licensing fees that is passed on to the city by the state. The fees accounted for 18 percent of Saratoga's total revenue in 200203.
The committee has indicated that if it passes the ballot measure, the tax will be in place for 10 years with a sunset date.
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