Scott Levitt: District 1: Old Town and Surfside Colony
To date, Seal Beach has weathered these tough financial times, but with many capital projects still to be completed, declining sales tax revenues, and escalating costs of salaries, pensions, and benefits, the City needs to fully examine our revenue stream.
The majority of City revenue comes from charges for City services and taxes. Taxes make up roughly 57% of the total City revenue. Within the tax category itself, property taxes account for 48%, sales tax 17.25%, hotel tax 5.25%, and “other” tax 29.50%. There are two ways to increase tax revenue: increase taxes or expand the tax base. I believe in expanding the tax base without raising or creating new taxes or implementing new fees.
Property taxes account for almost half of all tax revenue. The City should welcome renovated or newly constructed homes on existing lots and stop the path of down zoning home lots in the City. If no new or renovated homes are built, new property taxes will be scarce. Our existing zoning has created a beautiful atmosphere for living; it should not be altered to create an economic catastrophe in the City (an unintended consequence of currently pending zoning changes recommend by the Planning Commission).
If the owners of the DWP property build a boutique hotel, as currently zoned, then the occupancy tax of the City will increase. If they build residences, then the property tax revenues will greatly increase. The City needs to weigh this before it merely denies each proposal that comes before it. Likewise, creating a thriving business atmosphere on Main Street should be encouraged. Increased revenues without raising taxes, it is possible.
Joe Kalmick: District 1: Old Town and Surfside Colony
Remarkably, Seal Beach’s financial picture at the moment looks fairly stable.
But as we have seen on a national level, the situation could change in short order. It is important, therefore to be looking ahead to insure an adequate income stream to the City.
The first step of course, is to review our costs and see if there areas in our budget that might be trimmed.
As for revenue enhancements, we should raise our TOT or “bed” tax.
This is not a tax on our residents, but rather on visitors to our city who would be using our city’s services and amenities.
It could be raised from the present rate of 5% to 11% and be aligned with the current rate in Huntington Beach, for example.
Finalization of the Main St. Specific Plan could give the Chamber some direction in encouraging new business to come to town that could generate greater and more stable sales tax revenue.
Resolution of the issues impeding development of the DWP property will bring new revenues sooner than later.
I am not, however, in favor of raising any fees or taxes on our residents.
Robert Aguilar: District 1: Old Town and Surfside Colony
This week’s question asks how I would try to build revenue in Seal Beach.
Although Seal Beach does a great job already bringing in revenue and limiting it’s spending, there are always ways to bring in additional funds. I discussed in last week’s response the idea of adding a few more events to the Seal Beach social calendar. I believe that is a good way to obtain revenue from permits as well as additional funds from sales taxes and parking.
I would also like to see the creation of a public relations and promotional campaign for our “Gem by the Sea.”
Advertising to potential visitors and getting the word out about the great things we offer as a year around tourist destination.
Unique shopping and dining experiences, beautiful beaches, and friendly small town atmosphere are things we can sell to the public.
I understand that some residents want to keep our community a secret, but the reality is that it costs money to maintain this town’s charm and in order to avoid increased property and utility taxes we need to encourage others to spend money here instead.
That money can be used to improve and maintain our community for those of us who have made this our home.
Have you registered to vote yet?
If you just moved to Seal Beach or have not registered before go to my website at http://RobertAguilarJr.com and register now. Fill out the online form, print it, and mail it in before October 18, 2010 in order to vote in the November 2nd election. It’s quick, easy, and free.
If you want to see change in Seal Beach you must vote.
Ellery Deaton: District 1: Old Town and Surfside Colony
The City Council needs to live within its means the same as we citizens do. We currently have a balanced budget and reserves. To thrive in these depressed financial times, there are six things the City Council can do:
1. Keep a tightly balanced budget and eliminate extra spending by returning to an annual budget cycle, setting aside reserves within the budget, carefully monitoring salaries and benefits, and eliminating automatic increases in salaries.
2. Support our local business community. The heart of Old Town is our Main Street. It needs to be clean, attractive and well lit. A charming Main Street not only supports a vibrant business community, but also keeps property values high. Additionally, 1% of what we spend here in Seal Beach comes back to Seal Beach so we should all Shop Locally.
3. Keep our tax base strong by encouraging businesses to locate in Seal Beach.
4. Pay down our unfunded liabilities with a portion of the reserves that are now making less than 1% interest. We are currently paying about 6% on the money we owe. That is a drain we cannot afford.
5. From grants and a portion of the low interest bearing reserves, continue fixing our streets, alleys, sidewalks, pier, storm drains, sewers, etc. now while construction costs are low. If we don’t fix them now, we will pay a lot more later.
6. Maintain a robust reserve fund as required by law.
I know who pays the bills: we, the taxpayers. My goal is to pay down our unfunded liabilities, finish off the needed infrastructure improvements, and then begin to lower the Utility Users Tax for us, the taxpayers.
For more information see ElectEllery.com.
Michael Levitt: District 5: Leisure World
There are many ways a city can increase its revenue, but there has to be a balance between obtaining additional funds and providing fair and equitable treatment for its citizens.
Unfortunately, the first thing for many legislators is to initiate or raise fees charged for city services. But this can impose an undesirable burden on the folks who need those services.
Alternative revenue generators that I would suggest include:
• Where practical, don’t fill vacancies on the city staff.
• Require new hires to pay a larger share of their own pension and medical insurance premiums.
• Increase the fees we charge to house felons.
• Use college interns in the place of paid entry-level or part-time employees. The students appreciate the opportunity to get experience that would never be obtainable in a classroom or from a textbook, and the city would have a reliable source of future experienced employees.
I am going to discuss this at length at the next city council meeting: add electrical vehicle charging stations to our shopping areas to entice drivers.
While their PEV, or pure electric vehicle, receives a one-hour charge — with revenue to the city and the utility — the driver would grab a coffee or lunch, or do some shopping.
• Increase promotion of Seal Beach as a play-and-stay destination. This would include additional events “on the sand,” as I advocated in last week’s question. There would be increased tax revenue and TOT funds for our stormwater improvements.
Some of these events would be held “off season” so as to not overwhelm our parking lots, but would still increase the parking revenue.
As your city councilman, I’d be willing to consider and even promote any one of these avenues to increased revenue, especially the last four suggestions.
Anne Seifert: District 5: Leisure World
To increase revenues, many fines, fees and taxes could be added, especially to curb behaviors we don’t want (smoking on the pier, etc.). But, let’s not go that route. If the bottom line is to add money to our budget, I’d rather decrease expenses. Both income-generating and cost-saving approaches however, have value.
Looking at our budget, rather than to impose new or additional fees, I say trim expenses. Where is our money being spent? Because of abuses in other cities, attention is now drawn to salaries and employee benefits. Efforts are directed towards reducing what seem like generous employee pension benefits. But the focus should not be there only.
We need to evaluate contract requests more carefully from the many consultants who work for the City. We might reduce the level of service to reduce some costs. For example, how often do we really need streets cleaned? In District 5 we do not have weekly service. When we had our Del Mar home, our residential streets were cleaned once a year! (Whether we needed it or not).
No one complained. Sidewalks, however, were repaired immediately. I would agree though that beach and business streets deserve regular sweeping. Otherwise, I question the need city-wide. Could savings be made there? This is just an example, without intention to pick on street sweepers!
Also, I believe the City is not getting full benefit from permits. Many property owners have built add-ons, unpermitted. The permitting process can be inefficient and laborious for homeowners. We need a better way to do business: make it less painful to get a permit, and perhaps less abuse will occur resulting in more income for the City.
Let’s set budget priorities in accordance with resident needs. Streamline costs. Once done, allocations can be made accordingly.
