TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to conduct further research and recommend potential revenue-generating ballot initiatives in Long Beach as a means of addressing critical funding needs such as increasing public safety.
DISCUSSION
On September 7, 2004, as part of the adoption of the FY 05 Budget, the City
Council approved the recommendation of the Budget Oversight Committee
(BOC) to focus on potential resources that would address the structural deficit
and possibly alleviate the amount of reductions to core public services and/or
City personnel. During the past several months, the BOC has actively pursued
research on seven viable revenue options including:
Public Safety Revenue Options Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)
Library Assessment Tax Parking Lot Tax
Utility User Tax (UUT) Oil Production Tax
Local Sales Tax
In addition to establishing a comprehensive understanding of the ballot initiative
process, the BOC explored the revenue generating potential of each measure
and obtained electoral results for all agencies in California that had similar ballot
initiatives in either the 2004 or 2005 elections.
Furthermore, the research conducted by the BOC provided detailed information
on each of the above measures including the type, electoral results, election
date, amounts, projected annual revenue, sunset date and purpose or possible
uses by surveying comparable agencies. The BOC's findings have been
prepared in a detailed report and will be provided in its entirety.
Although the information gathered by the BOC has laid a foundation, further indepth
analysis is necessary to establish the feasibility of these options. When
surveying cities that have pursued initiatives such as Oakland, San Luis Obispo,
Porterville and Morgan Hill, it was found that prior to recommending specific
initiatives, the next step usually includes engaging professional input to
determine the viability and magnitude of potential initiatives, types of election,
public supp...
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