How will Elk Grove spend the millions from a new tax hike? City forums may point the way
Elk Grove in April will begin collecting the first of millions of dollars of new revenue from city Measure E, the 1% sales tax increase, with money casting a net over a wide array of targets from public safety and homelessness to roads, parks and youth programs.
Beginning Tuesday, Elk Grove, Cosumes Community Services District and city residents will meet at a monthlong series of community forums to discuss how and where the $21.2 million that will be generated from the tax hike each year will be spent.
Regular audits and community oversight of how the new revenue would be spent are also part of the measure’s provisions. Residents can apply to be part of an oversight committee to review how the tax dollars are spent. Deadline to apply is March 1.
Elk Grove Police Chief Bobby Davis and Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Department Chief Felipe Rodriguez will lead the first meeting Tuesday. The forum will “discuss and explore new strategies to address public safety (and) potential public safety solutions” that could be supported by the tax measure.
A Feb. 13 forum led by Elk Grove economic director Darrell Doan will focus on economic development, attracting and retaining businesses and workers.
Homelessness is the subject of a Feb. 27 forum at District 56. Concerns about Elk Grove’s rising unhoused population dominated much of 2022, from city leaders’ vows to tackle the problem, to Elk Grove’s stringent ordinance last summer barring camping in much of the city’s public spaces to criticism from advocates and state housing officials that Elk Grove leaders were not doing enough to find shelter and housing for its unhoused residents.
Elk Grove housing and police officials alongside Cosumnes fire officials will join the Feb. 27 talk.
Maintaining Elk Grove’s streets and its more than 100 city parks will be the topic of a Feb. 28 conversation.
Residents can discuss solutions they want to see and talk about the street and park maintenance issues that most impact them.
The added revenue, Elk Grove officials said, would go to pay for more police officers to tackle rising property and violent crimes — Elk Grove wants to hire 27 more police personnel over the next five years. The revenue would also address homelessness, improve emergency services as well as speed response times, repair and maintain roads and streets and the city’s 100 neighborhood parks, city and Cosumnes officials said in pushing the measure.
City Manager Jason Behrmann has said some $2 million a year will be needed to maintain and improve city streets and roads and relieve traffic congestion.
Voters in November approved the tax hike from 7.75% to 8.75%, the highest in region with Sacramento and Rancho Cordova and easily the most significant revenue generator in the city’s history. The November vote appeared as much a reflection of residents’ worries about safety, traffic and the city’s growing unhoused population as acknowledgment of the city’s concerns over the money needed to tackle the issues.
“We have to have resources to keep people safe and to respond to emergencies,” Elk Grove Councilman Darren Suen said last July as city leaders voted to put Measure E on the fall ballot. “There is no good timing for taxes. It’s never a good time to pay more. The sad truth is that things continue to cost more. Our needs as a city as we grow will continue to increase and if we’re not able to keep up, we’ll be left behind.”
A months-long ground game of neighborhood surveys and community conversations ahead of last summer’s council decision gauged support for the measure. A majority of Elk Grove residents surveyed said more funding was needed to provide and maintain community services, while 60% of residents said they would support a potential one cent per dollar hike.
Critics citing a host of concerns from rising inflation and looming recession threats to the added financial burdens carried by the city’s working families and its graying seniors on fixed incomes opposed the tax hike.
Others pointed to the Wilton Rancheria’s newly opened Sky River Casino. The tribe had agreed to invest $186 million in the city and Sacramento County over the next 20 years to boost public safety and education, roads and other services. The millions vowed would go to fund many of the same services that Measure E targets.
But residents’ support for Measure E translated to the ballot box, with the city-backed measure winning with 54% of the vote. More than 30,000 voters threw their support behind the increase.
This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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