Santee considering up to one-cent sales tax measure

Santee is considering placing an up to one-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot to fund infrastructure improvements and emergency services.

While no official decisions have been made yet, the city began exploring the option last August when it hired consultant TeamCivX in August to research the community’s appetite for a half-cent sales tax measure and to conduct a feasibility study.

“We have to do something because the people that live in our community deserve better streets,” Mayor John Minto said. “The people in our community deserve having firefighters that can get there in a reasonable amount of time to save lives and property.”

A little over a year has passed since Santee residents rejected Measure S, a citizen-led initiative that would have enacted a half-cent sales tax for 15 years to fund fire protection and emergency services.

Santee residents narrowly defeated the measure, with 52% of voters opposed.

The city’s proposal would not be aimed solely at funding emergency services. Officials are considering a variety of uses for the tax revenue — including expanding fire protection and emergency services, but also improving roads, maintaining parks, and more.

During a recent council meeting, officials received a report from True North Research, a firm hired by TeamCivX, on a survey to gauge support for a half-cent sales tax for 10 years to fund city services and infrastructure projects.

Sixty-nine percent ot the voters surveyed supported the half-cent sales tax measure, Timothy McLarney, an official for TeamCivX, said.

After being presented with a variety of negative arguments against the ballot proposal, 63% of participants still supported the measure.

A half-cent sales tax would provide approximately $7 million dollars annually to the city, while a one-cent sales tax would generate up to $14 million in revenue.

City leaders expressed general support for a tax measure, with some indicating a desire for a one-cent tax.

“I think a penny is a good idea that we should look at,” Minto said. “People aren’t going to stop coming to Santee because we raise the sales tax … we’ve got to get the money someplace.”

At the same time, officials have said the East County city is considering other funding sources to build two new fire stations in an effort to reduce response times and expand emergency services.

Officials are weighing state and federal funding options, as well as bonds, to pay for permanent stations in the northeastern and southwestern portions of the city.

The consulting firm will begin vetting a potential measure with the public and will present their findings to the council near the end of the summer.

The Council did not provide staff direction to conduct an additional feasibility study for a potential one-cent sales tax measure, a city spokesperson said, but the city is not taking it off the table.

City leaders would have until early August to decide whether or not to put the sales tax ballot measure on the ballot this November.

“Ultimately, this is not put on the backs of the citizens of Santee, it is put on the backs of the people who come to Santee,” Councilmember Dustin Trotter said. “We know that those shoppers use our emergency services, and obviously, travel our roads.”