TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

California Tax: Rohnert Park leaders think tax measure will pass

Officials guardedly optimistic that voters will approve 1/2 cent tax increase

Rohnert Park officials are guardedly optimistic going into Tuesday's election, when residents will vote on a ½-cent city sales tax ballot measure. The tax would end after five years.

"As far as I can tell from being out and about in the community, there seems to be a reasonable chance of success," said Councilman Jake Mackenzie, who has been walking the city's neighborhoods for a month to drum up support for the tax, Measure E.

"I think it's going to be close, but I think it's going to pass," said Vice Mayor Gina Belforte. "Based on personal experience walking, I'm getting the sense that more people are saying, 'Yes, I'm going to support it.' But it's going to be close."

Rohnert Park is wrestling with a $4 million general fund budget deficit. Without Measure E revenue, the city will run out of money in 2011, finance director Sandy Lipitz said. But officials also acknowledge that even if the tax passes, it will raise only $2.4 to $2.8 million a year, leaving the city to confront an annual deficit of about $1.5 million.

That has left city leaders with somewhat modest hopes for the election, tempered by the knowledge that regardless, more cuts will have to be made to stanch the bleeding.

Whether Measure E passes or doesn't, "there is a critical need to reduce the city's expenses in order to bring our revenues, which are considerably down, more in line with our expenditures," said John Dunn, the interim city manager.

Belforte said "everything will be on the table" as far as cuts to services, programs or other cost saving measures that will have to be considered even should the tax measure pass.

Among possible cuts that have already been outlined, Public Safety Director Brian Masterson said the department's Special Enforcement Unit, which focuses on sex offenders, gang crimes and monitoring parolees, would likely be eliminated.

He said other likely cuts would include:

Eliminating responses by police officers to calls for crimes such as vandalism, graffiti and vehicle burglaries lacking information about suspects;

Eliminating the canine and traffic units;

Closing fire stations on a rotating basis.

Other cuts that would be considered, according to finance director Sandy Lipitz, are:

Animal shelter services;

Parks maintenance;

The city's senior center and community center.

The council has cut nearly $6 million since July, eliminated 34 positions through layoffs, attrition or freezing empty jobs, and imposed furloughs that amount to pay cuts of up to 9 percent on all staff, including public safety officers.

Other budget cuts have included closing three of five city swimming pools, shuttering park bathrooms and turning the city's Spreckels Performing Arts Center into a rental-only facility.

The Yes on Measure E campaign, funded entirely by the city's public safety officers association, or POA, collected $34,979. As of May 27, $25,279 had been spent, almost all mailers and campaign signs.

Political consultant Rob Muelrath, who is advising the POA, said a final mailer is likely to go out this weekend, and police officers will be making a final door-to-door push to get out the vote.

According to the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters, 10,522 absentee ballots were mailed to Rohnert Park voters, a number equal to about half the city's registered voters.

Despite the city's largely unified front during the campaign, fortified by the influential POA, there have been schisms among employee groups that may be reflected in Tuesday's vote.

The Service Employees International Union, which represents the city's 32 public works and maintenance workers, voted not to endorse Measure E after two days of debate.

Jim McIntyre, one of the union's Rohnert Park shop stewards, described the vote as a protest against managers who had led the city into its current troubles.

"It was a vote not to support management because of their lack of leadership," he said, noting that he voted to support the tax measure.

Petaluma-based political consultant Brian Sobel, who tracks Rohnert Park politics, said the question of how widespread that sentiment is a crucial one in Tuesday's election.

"Any referendum on an initiative involving a sales tax is really intertwined with whether a public thinks the city is being managed well. There's no escaping that reality," he said.

"The public will support a sales tax if they think the city is run well. They will crush a sales tax if they don't."

McIntyre added that the vote also reflected the employees' frustrations with contract negotiations and budget crises that have left them overworked.

"Our guys felt just wronged by management," he said.