If Santa Barbara Voters Pass Sales Tax, Where Should the Funds Go?

Finance Committee Decides to Leave Priority List as Is, Send Discussion to Full Council

By Ryan P. Cruz Tue Aug 20, 2024 | 04:34pm

When the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously agreed to put a half-cent sales tax measure on the November 5 ballot, giving the city’s voters the chance to decide on a tax that could bring in up to $15.6 million annually, it raised the larger question of how the city would decide to dole out those funds and what would be the top priorities.

During that council discussion on June 11, there was debate over the order of the priority list, a bullet-point breakdown that gave top-billing to “9-1-1 and public safety,” followed by affordable housing — specifically funding the city’s Local Housing Trust Fund — and homeless services. Some of the councilmembers wanted to list affordable housing as the top priority to reflect the input from the community, but after much discussion, the council agreed to move forward with the language as presented, since that specific wording had already performed well during polling.

On Tuesday, the city’s Finance Committee had its opportunity to weigh in on the ballot measure before the item returns for full council discussion. Finance Director Keith DeMartini went over the proposed list of priorities, which include: maintaining 9-1-1 emergency police response; contributing to the city’s Local Housing Trust Fund; improving housing affordability and addressing homelessness; keeping fire stations open; maintaining library services; and maintaining public areas and parks.

The list, DeMartini explained, was based on public input from more than two dozen meetings over the past nine months, and the order was not meant to indicate that any item was more important than the other. The actual distribution of funds would come later, if the voters approved the tax.

But during public comment, several representatives from community organizations argued that putting housing at the top of the list may actually sway more voters in favor of the measure.

“How you decide these priorities is going to impact how voters decide to vote,” said Larry Severance, president of the board at CLUE (Clergy and Laity United For Economic and Social Justice). “And there’s no more apparent problem in our community than the housing crisis — affordable housing and workforce housing — and homelessness.”

Rob Fredericks, who is executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and was in attendance at many of the public meetings discussing community priorities, also said that the order of the list should reflect the community’s input. “I would hope that a basic human right such as housing is put at the top of the priority list,” he said.

Finance committee members, however, shared concerns with tweaking the language at this point. All three committee members agreed to approve the language as is, allowing the full council to weigh in on the issue again at a future date.