Utility Tax Plan Headed for Ballot

Come November, Oxnard residents will have to decide if they are willing to pay more in utility bills for additional police and fire protection.

On Friday, the City Council unanimously approved placing a 3.5% utility tax measure on the November ballot to raise $5.25 million annually for additional police and fire protection.

“If the voters feel that they want the additional services for fire and police, they can support it,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said.

Faced with a budget shortfall and declining resources, the council opted to support the tax, which would raise Oxnard residents’ utility bills by $5 to $10 a month. The fee includes taxes on every utility ranging from gas and electricity to cable television use.

The measure needs to be approved by two-thirds of city voters. Fees for residents would not exceed $120 a year; the annual cap for businesses would be $4,000. An oversight committee would ensure that funds from the tax are used only for public safety and would determine whether the tax percentage should ever be decreased. In addition, the tax would expire within eight years unless residents vote in 2002 to extend it.

Although faced with a $1.3-million budget shortfall, city officials did not cut funding for police and fire services in the 1996-97 budget, which begins Monday, and found an additional $500,000 for youth programs and police. Other department budgets were cut across the board.

City officials and several community and business leaders rallied behind the utility tax, saying it was needed to fend off what is perceived as an increasing problem with gang violence and shootings.

Since January, Oxnard has had 10 homicides, six of them gang- related, police said.

This spate of violence, particularly among the city’s youth, spurred activists to propose the new taxes.

“We do not have enough police or the technology to effectively combat crime,” said Manuel Perez, a lifelong Oxnard resident. “Some of us law-abiding citizens no longer feel safe in the city of Oxnard.”

Supporters of the measure also point out that the Fire Department has not had any staff additions since 1970, although the city’s population has more than doubled.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt said tax revenues generated by the measure would be used to hire six new officers for the department’s anti-gang task force, provide for five additional officers to patrol junior and senior high schools in the city and cover other programs.

In addition, nearly $1.3 million of the more than $5 million in additional annual revenues would be used to hire a dozen new firefighters and to purchase new firefighting equipment.

But if history is an indicator, the majority of Oxnard voters are not supporters of utility tax measures. In 1990, Measure C, a 5% utility tax measure that could have generated $5 million annually to the city’s general operating fund, was soundly defeated by voters. At the time, Lopez warned voters that cuts in fire and police services were inevitable. By 1992, budget cutbacks had resulted in the loss of 16 police positions, but in the last three years the police budget has been increased by $3.5 million.

Backers of this year’s measure say they are confident Oxnard residents will approve it.

Kevin Bernzott, a member of Committee 2000, which was formed to support the utility tax plan, said this year’s measure was carefully worded with a specific purpose and fee caps, to avoid any comparisons with the 1990 measure.

“Police and fire is like mom and apple pie,” Bernzott said. “People want to feel safe. I mean, when you dial 911, you want the cavalry to come out.”