Impact of Measure B

After more than a year of gathering community input about priorities for Roseville, the City Council unanimously placed Measure B on the November ballot. It’s a half-cent sales tax increase that would protect and maintain essential city services. If enacted, Measure B would protect essential city services.

After 10 years of budget cuts, including services and labor costs, additional cuts will become increasingly noticeable to the public.

• Measure B was placed on the ballot after engaging thousands of Roseville residents to prioritize for city services.
• Results included a preference to raise revenue to maintain, restore, and in some cases, to add services, over cutting or eliminating more services.
• Measure B provides that option.

Public safety is the community’s and City’s top priority.

• Amid unfunded State mandates and cuts to City services, including police and fire, Measure B will help ensure police and fire protection – no matter what happens with the State budget.
• Measure B will provide locally controlled funding for local needs, with funding that cannot be taken by the State.

If passed, Measure B would protect and maintain essential services, including:

• Preventing cuts to emergency response, fire protection, parks, recreation, and libraries.
• Maintaining streets, roads and repairing potholes so they don’t become more costly to fix in the future.
• Up-to-date 911 dispatch and emergency operations.
• Maintaining neighborhood police patrols and crime suppression/investigation.
• Parks, libraries, and recreation programs and facilities, which help protect our property values.

Measure B requires strict accountability, including:

• Independent Citizen Oversight.
• Financial audits.
• Every penny from Measure B is legally required to stay in Roseville.

Fiscal safeguards will ensure funds are used efficiently and effectively.

Roseville’s current sales tax rate is the lowest allowed by state law and is among the lowest in the region. Several cities in the region already have additional local sales-tax measures in place or on the ballot for this November, including up to a penny-per-dollar increase. If Measure B were to pass, Roseville would still have one of the lowest sales-tax rates in the region.

• A half-cent sales tax increase is estimated to cost a typical Roseville household $5 per month
• Our City has strategically diversified its tax base over the years through development.
• This means 60% of funding to maintain city service levels comes from businesses and visitors.

• We have been facing this problem for more than a decade since the recession.
• Shifting consumer habits have decreased our revenue.
• Rising costs, expanding regulations, and changing expectations have increased our expenses.
• Until recently, the 10 years of cuts we’ve made haven’t been too noticeable to the public, including significant cuts to labor costs.
• Our City is proactive when it comes to addressing issues. This is why we have done extensive public outreach about our service levels and priorities well before we’re in a crisis situation.

The City has been making budget cuts for 10 years in every area of our General Fund in order to balance our budget.  These include:

• Reducing our staff by 30% per capita from 2007 to 2018 as the population grew.
• Reducing the percentage of pension contributions paid by the city. Employees pay more towards their retirement.
• Slowing the growth of salary increases.
• Targeting salaries to median in the market, resulting in an overall savings of about 10 percent.
• Ensuring operational efficiencies through independent audits.

See the details of those cuts here.

The City receives less than a penny of the 7.25 cents in sales tax for every dollar spent online and it receives a penny of the 7.25 cents per dollar in sales tax for purchases made onsite in Roseville.

The City loses an estimated $3 million to $4 million annually in sales tax revenue due to the way the State distributes sales tax revenues from online purchases. This loss will be greater as online shopping grows. This means that instead of receiving a penny-per-dollar for each purchase made at a register, the City receives less than a penny per dollar for each online purchase.

The State of California doesn’t tax services, only goods.  So when you purchase a service like Netflix,  Amazon music, or a yard maintenance service instead of buying a DVD, CD, or lawnmower, the City receives less sales tax revenue.

All of it. It is estimated to generate $16 million to $19 million annually, and every penny from Measure B is legally required to stay in Roseville and cannot be taken by the State.

The City receives 15% of the property tax revenue you pay in Roseville. The rest of the property tax revenue goes to the state and county. For a house with an assessed property value of $410,000, this means that about $615 of the $4,100 annual property-tax bill goes to the City.

• Roseville’s current General Fund is $139 million.
• This pays for police, fire, public works, parks, recreation, libraries, and general-government services.
• City Council has discretion over $95 million.
• More than half of the discretionary dollars already go to toward Public Safety, the City Council’s No. 1 priority.
• The remaining $44 million is restricted funding and can only be spent on specific expenses. It comes from grants, developer fees, gas-tax revenue, landscape and lighting districts, community facility districts, and fees for service.
• The utilities and transit are separate from the City’s General Fund.

• Pension costs account for $2 million to $3 million annually of the $13 million structural deficit in our five-year forecast.
• The majority of expense increases come from increasing regulations from the state and federal government, and increased costs for infrastructure, materials, supplies, and services, including the Affordable Care Act and increases to minimum wage.
• The City is obligated by law to pay pension costs.
• The City doesn’t have the ability to reduce pensions retroactively.
• Pension costs must be paid before discretionary expenses are paid.
• The City has taken the steps available to contain pensions costs, but we can’t reduce pension obligations for current employees on a go-forward basis without a change in state law.

PROTECTING ROSEVILLE’S PUBLIC SAFETY, ROADS, AND ESSENTIAL SERVICES MEASURE

Shall the measure to ensure essential City services including neighborhood police patrols, fire protection, 9-1-1 emergency response; crime suppression/investigation; street and pothole repair; libraries, parks and recreation; job creation and economic improvement programs; and unrestricted general revenue purposes by establishing a 1/2ȼ Transaction and Use (“sales”) tax, providing an estimated $18.4M annually, until ended by voters, with independent citizens’ oversight, regular audits, no money for the state, and all funds spent locally, be adopted?

YES ___

NO ___

• Repealing the gas tax would mean a loss to the General Fund of an average of $3 million annually for 10 years.
• Our current budget forecasts include funding from the gas tax, so a repeal of the gas tax would cause a greater deficit in our General Fund than we currently face.

The budget challenges are in the General Fund, which is the not the source of funding for the parking garage, fire station, and downtown bridges. These improvements are built using restricted funding such as fees and grants that can only be spent on these types of projects. In some cases, if we don’t spend the monies we obtain for specific projects like these, we will forfeit the funds, so it’s in our community’s best interest to use them.

• Roseville’s philosophy is that growth pays its way.
• Roseville collects fees for growth, which help build other amenities, such as Mahany Park and the Mike Shellito Indoor Pool.
• In addition, with our growing business sector, Roseville is a net importer of jobs.  Growth helps us provide the skilled workforce to support the businesses.
• In turn, 60% of the city’s sales and property tax revenues, which are used to fund city services benefiting residents come from businesses and visitors.
• Legally, with Development Agreements in place long ago, property owners have the authorization to continue building.

No.  Each of our community owned utilities operate as a separate business unit outside of the City’s General Fund.  None of the revenue generated by Measure B could be used by our utilities.

Measure B is on the November 6, 2018 ballot.

Voter information can be found online here. 

Contact engageroseville@roseville.ca.us and provide the time, date, location, group, and number expected to attend.