Chamber Hears Clash of Views on Sales Tax Plan

The main event at yesterday's Chamber of Commerce luncheon -- a city staff presentation on public works -- prompted a spirited airing of opposing views on the proposed half-cent boost in the sales tax.

City officials want to raise the city sales tax to 10.25 percent to prevent a budget deficit that they say would require cutting police and other city services. The City Council voted unanimously July 19 to the put tax before voters in November. The extra tax, listed as Measure R on the ballot, would end after seven years.

"I can't think of a worst time to be raising taxes," said Bill Kerber, who operated El Cerrito's Freeway Motel for 25 years and served on the Chamber of Commerce board 20 years. "Why not consider cutting costs?"

He said the city successfully fixed a budget deficit in the early '90s by cutting two police officers, two firefighters and other city spending.

El Cerrito's Public Works Director Jerry Bradshaw, who gave yesterday's luncheon presentation at Trevino's Mexican Restaurant, responded that the city already has cut spending with a hiring freeze that has left many city jobs vacant. He said the cuts in city services in the early '90s nearly eliminated the Public Works department and that it's taken a decade to retore public confidence in the city's ability to deliver satisfactory services.

City Manager Scott Hanin said the City Council in essence adopted two budgets — one that the city is currently operating under and that preserves existing city services with the assumption that the tax will be approved, and one that will reduce public safety and other public services if the tax is defeated.

"I think it was the decision of the City Council to give the voters the chance to decide before we start cutting services," he said. He said El Cerrito, which suffered from a high crime rate in the past, has seen serious crime cut by a third under the current level of policing but that crimes would go back up if police services are cut.

He also said the city has not been able to find evidence that a marginal difference in the sales tax has a significant impact on where people shop.

Former Mayor Kenneth Berndt, a signer of the ballot argument against Measure R, said the city's population has decreased four percent in the past 10 years, while the city budget has increased 267 percent.

"You've got to draw back instead of spending," he said.

Hanin said budget growth is attributable largely to the increase in grants and special funding that is targeted to specific projects and is not available for police and other services paid with the general fund. He said the growth of the general fund has been much more modest.

Berndt questioned whether the city's figures are reliable.

Hanin said the police are making sacrifices and agreed to give up 11 percent of the 14 percent raise that was due to them.

The chamber has endorsed the tax boost, and Chamber President John Stashik told the gathering that the decision wasn't "difficult."

"A half-cent sales tax isn't going to drive that many people out of town," he said, adding the extra gas and other transportation costs of shopping outside El Cerrito would outweigh the increased tax.

He also noted that not one chamber member objected when he asked for responses to tax increase, though he acknowledged that some members may not have been looking at their email or didn't care at the time.

He acknowledged that the chamber's stand has since met some resistance. "I've taken some major flak for it, but we will stand by it."

In a related development yesterday, a Contra Costa Times editorial came out against the proposed sales tax boost in El Cerrito and four other cities in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

Except for five cities in Los Angeles County, the sales tax in all California cities is currently below 10 percent, though several cities have proposed sales tax increases.