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Community input may factor in how Measures I, M money spent
Vacaville City Council
- What: Public input on spending new tax money.
- When: 7 p.m. Tuesday.
- Where: Vacaville City Council chamber, 650 Merchant St.
- Info: 449-5100.
VACAVILLE — Vacaville City Manager Laura Kuhn will ask the City Council Tuesday to consider using a communitywide survey to ask city residents what they want recently approved Measure I and M excise and sales tax money to be spent on.
Measure I is renewal of an existing 25-year-old excise tax that was set to expire. Measure M is the new 0.25 percent sales tax that will last five years. Measure I is expected to raise $2.3 million a year and Measure M is expected to raise between $3.6 and 4 million a year.
Both were approved by Vacaville voters in November.
Part of the selling process during the election was a promise from the City Council that Vacaville residents would get every opportunity to express where they wanted the tax money spent. The council also promised to set up a process to show how it spends that money.
The council already stated one major goal is to use some of the tax measure money to resuscitate the city’s reserves that would eventually equal between 16 percent and 25 percent of the city budget.
Kuhn wrote in her report to the council that it has been historically difficult to get a broad section of the community to council meetings and town hall workshops to give their input. Getting feedback through social media has also been problematic because only those with access to social media participate, according to Kuhn.
Citing the accuracy of a community survey that pegged how the ballot measures would fare, Kuhn is recommending that the city spend $15,000 to do another survey within the next two months to ask residents about their city spending priorities. Social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter would be included as ways to get the survey out.
Whatever results come back would be handed to the City Council at a special meeting and help the council prepare for its budget hearings in May and June, Kuhn wrote.
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ithompsondr.
Ian Thompson
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