Hello Gilroy! On your ballots this November will be Measure C, a request for a quarter of a cent sales tax that will generate about $4.5 million annually for Gilroy’s Police and Fire Departments. Why does Gilroy need this added revenue? Because we can’t improve today’s public safety services without it.
Between state housing mandates that fail to recognize their impacts on more rural communities without proportionate job growth, state laws that no longer categorize certain crimes as felonies and allow for repetitive offenses, the lag in medical response time from our county ambulance service, and general population growth that doesn’t add nearly as much to city revenue as it takes in cost of city services, we cannot meet your expectations from our public safety services without a consistent revenue source. Measure C would be that source.
Like many of us, I share the general opinion that we pay too much in taxes already. I also believe that housing and commercial development should be balanced within any community so that revenues from the latter can help support the costs of the former.
Maybe state laws will one day recognize the need for balance in housing, jobs and transportation in EVERY community, but until then, we need to protect our neighborhoods and our families with better patrol and better response times.
Gilroy’s current sales tax rate is 9.125%, of which the city receives only 1 percentage point, with the remaining 8.125% going to state and county jurisdictions (side note: Gilroy receives 14% of property taxes). The additional quarter percent asked by Measure C will go entirely to the City of Gilroy.
The city council put forth this measure with a specific funding purpose that requires two-thirds voter approval to pass (as opposed to a simple majority) so that we are assured that the proceeds are used solely for the specific purpose stated in Measure C and may not be used or diverted elsewhere, not even by a future vote of the city council.
Measure C also provides that existing levels of public safety funding may not be altered and replaced with the revenue of this measure, assuring for us all that this revenue will be in addition to the public safety funding we have today.
Measure C requires an independent Citizen Oversight Committee with strict accountability to ensure that funds are spent as authorized and properly disclosed to the public each year. If approved, the additional tax will go into effect in April 2025, and the allocation would be 40% for the Police Department (about $1.8 million annually), 35% for the Fire Department (about $1.6 million annually), and 25% for public safety infrastructure (about $1.1 million annually).
Gilroy’s history is not one of frequent tax measures on the ballot. In fact, the last tax measure passed for the City of Gilroy was over 20 years ago to build the library and the police station, both assets that our community desperately needed.
In those 20 years, GUSD and Gavilan College have asked for bond measures to build/rebuild facilities, and Santa Clara County Measures A and B were passed in 2016 to address affordable housing and to improve transportation infrastructure, respectively.
While Gilroy stands shy to burden our residents any further, more and more of your pocketbooks are going elsewhere.
Measure C is not a tax on your home, property, food or prescription medications. It is a sales tax on purchases paid by residents and nonresidents alike. In fact, about 50% of the estimated $4.5 million it will generate annually will come from visitors.
I hope the information helps you think through your willingness to support Measure C before more of our pocketbooks are taken for everything except our own City of Gilroy. Together, we are the City of Gilroy, and we’re worth it!
Marie Blankley
Mayor, City of Gilroy
