Orange City Council to consider sales tax ballot measure at special meeting Friday

The Orange City Council will hold a special meeting Friday afternoon to decide whether to ask voters to approve adding a local sales tax – Friday is the deadline to add such a measure to the ballot of November, according to the city clerk.

The new fiscal year begins Monday, and after weeks of deliberations, the City Council finally approved a budget Tuesday. Still, the approved budget projects a general fund deficit of about $8 million.

The deficit persists even after officials agreed earlier this month to make multimillion-dollar cuts to many city services, including freezing many city staff positions.

On Tuesday, council members also voted to cancel city-funded community events after July 10, which had previously been spared, unless private sponsors stepped in to fund them. That means this July 3 fireworks display could be the city’s last. Concerts in the park, Halloween trick-or-treating in the streets and the Christmas tree lighting ceremony are all in jeopardy unless the city finds outside resources to keep them alive.

Combined, the special events cost the city about $500,000 a year.

“The cuts break my heart, but if we are going to be serious about cuts, any event that is not taken over by a sponsor needs to be cut,” said board member Jon Dumitru. “It has to be draconian, because if we want to tell the public that we have financial problems, we have to scale everything back.”

A list of other budget cuts approved as of June 25 is available on the city’s website.

Councilmember John Gyllenhammer was the only representative to reject the budget. He argued the city needs to make more budget cuts, including potentially to public safety positions that have been spared so far.

The city’s ad hoc budget committee, on which Gyllenhammer serves, will continue to meet and make recommendations on budget cuts, Mayor Dan Slater said.

After approving the budget, the city turned to the prospect of a local sales tax to generate additional revenue.

Council members heard a presentation from consultants who surveyed more than 800 likely voters in Orange in late May and early June to assess the political feasibility of a 1 percent sales tax measure that would be approved on the November ballot.

Consultants Fairbank, Maslin, Maulin, Metz & Associates said their data suggests passing the measure would be difficult, with about a 1:1 ratio of respondents saying they would “definitely vote yes” per year. compared to those saying they would vote yes. I would vote “definitely no”.

Consultants noted that public perception of the tax could continue to change as the city becomes aware of its financial woes.

After the presentation, council members raised five different motions regarding various sales taxes. All failed. But they said it was important to continue the conversation and possibly vote again on a tax measure Friday, in light of what continues to be a significant budget deficit amid dwindling emergency reserves of the city, drawn from years of Orange budget deficits.

Slater called for a half-cent tax that would expire in 12 years, but did not receive public support. City councilor Denis Bilodeau called for a half-cent tax that would expire in 10 years. Only he and Slater supported it.

“I have never voted for a tax measure that was on the ballot,” Bilodeau said. “But given our income, we cannot maintain this level of public safety. »

Councilwoman Arianna Barrios called for a three-quarter-cent tax until voters stop it, another proposal that received no support from other council members.

Then Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez proposed a 1% sales tax, a measure that only she and Barrios supported.

After all these proposals, a 4-3 majority on the council voted in favor of a half-cent tax that would expire in 15 years, but it takes five votes to bring a tax measure to the ballot. Council members Kathy Tavoularis, Dumitru and Gyllenhammer voted no.

“A tax is an absolute last resort,” Gyllenhammer said, adding that he believes there is still time for Orange to find more discounts and raise more revenue before going down that route.

City staff said Friday’s meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m., but the official agenda has not yet been released.