Ballot language for Measure D, Isleton sales tax for fire services, omitted key info

Voters in Isleton are being asked on the March 3 ballot to consider a special 3/4-cent sales tax that would go towards funding its fire department.

Measure D would replace an existing half-cent sales tax for the fire department, Measure B, that Isleton voters approved 3 to 1 in 2016. It must get two-thirds of the vote to pass.

But the Measure D ballot language approved by Isleton City Council failed to note key pieces of information, such as how much the sales tax is expected to raise and how long the tax would last. Failure to include those details violates state election law.

That law, authored by Assemblyman Jay Obernolte and which took effect in January 2018, was meant to improve transparency at the voting booth.

“The decision as to whether or not to impose taxation is possibly the most consequential decision voters are asked to make. You need to tell people what the measure does,” said Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake. “I’m certainly sympathetic, but something I think cities fail to realize is the consequences of trying to sweep something under the rug like this.”

A plain language reading of the Measure D ballot language shows “there has not been a good faith effort to comply with state election code,” he said.

The fact that Measure D’s ballot language failed to include expected revenue and duration on the ballot measure wouldn’t necessarily be grounds for disqualifying the entire tax if it passes in March, said Brian Hildreth, an election and political law attorney based in Sacramento.

Still, after being notified of the omissions by The Sacramento Bee, Isleton sent out a special notice to all voters in the city last week.

According to the Jan. 31 notice, the Measure D sales tax would remain in effect for five years and is expected to generate $110,000 annually. That’s $10,000 more than the current Measure B half-cent sales tax was expected to bring in this year, according to Isleton’s 2019-20 city budget.

A review of city documents by The Bee reveals Isleton’s struggle to maintain consistent accounting documents tracking how much revenue the 2016 sales tax generates, and what it’s being spent on. A mandated oversight commission for the sales tax wasn’t formed until three years after the city started collected revenue.

A new sales tax proposal like Measure D should compel Isleton “to be showing what they’ve done with the money (in the past) so people have confidence,” said Michael Coleman, a local government finance expert based in Sacramento. “It should be compelling.”

Isleton Fire Department is only now ensuring services that residents should expect, said Fire Chief Scott Baroni. The city has spent years trying to turnaround its long history of financial difficulties and beleaguered public safety services.

With Measure B funds, the department has been able to buy new helmets, vehicles, turnouts — the protective clothes firefighters wear — and more, Baroni said.

The 22-person department, made up mostly of volunteers, responded to about three calls a week over the last two years, according to data from the Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center.

“Now that major purchases have been made, those new turnouts are already three years old. Seven years from now we need to replace all those, so we’re looking down the road, at the future,” Baroni said.

In particular, the city is looking to purchase a new ladder truck for about $700,000.

This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.