Measure A would increase sales tax by .75% to bring local Arcadia sales tax rate to 10.25%. It will be placed on a June 4 mail-in ballot. If passed, Measure A would yield about $8.6 million annually, which would be dedicated to keeping city services at the levels residents have come to appreciate.
How Measure A is expected to affect Arcadia. Arcadia City Council will put a sales tax increase of 3/4 percent on this year's June ballot. The added sales tax would be added to the city's income to benefit the current deficit.
Arcadia residents pass Measure A by significant majority. It is a 3/4 cent sales tax increase, passed with 63.94% of the vote in Tuesday's mail-in ballot. The increase will provide locally controlled funds to maintain Arcadia's public safety and other city services. See Also Mountain Views News, June 8, 2019, p. 7.
What does Measure A mean for Arcadia? According to Arcadia Citizen's Fiscal Advisory Committee Final Report, additional revenue is required to maintain city services at current levels. If the 3/4 cent sales tax Measure A fails to pass, it could mean eliminating up to 13 police and 10 firefighter and/or paramedic positions, and other cuts to other service areas, like Public Works, Recreation, and the Library.
Arcadia voters consider extending hotel-room tax in the ballot Measure D. It is meant to close a loophole in a city ordinance on the transient tax. Currently, the city imposes a tax rate of 10% of the rent paid by guests to occupy a room up to 30 consecutive days. If the measure passes by a majority vote, the occupancy tax would be imposed the first 90 days of a stay.
Arcadia City Council takes steps to increase public safety. On October 16, City Council discussed a recommendation to add a measure to the ballot containing a ¾-cent sales tax, which is needed to help Arcadia with its current financial woes. The Citizens Financial Advisory Committee reviewed the city’s expenditures and asked the council to declare a state of fiscal emergency as soon as possible and no later than June 2019. The vote to add the measure passed almost unanimously, with one council member recusing themself from the vote.
Online company Expedia has pulled out of the Arcadia, CA marketplace because of the recently approved Measure D, which adds a 10 percent hotel occupancy tax to services provided by online travel companies.
Ballot measure aims to repeal Arcadia's utility tax. The current tax adds 7% to bills for water, electricity and natural gas and 5% for telecommunications for both residential and commercial customers. If approved, city services will be downgraded significantly. It would eliminate 12.5% of Arcadia's budget.
Measure A passes in semi-official election returns, according to latest figures from Arcadia Unified School District. Measure A, the education parcel tax had 6,199 yes votes and 2,970 no votes. Out of 28,616 registered voters, only one-third came out to vote on this measure.
Arcadia, Sierra Madre and Bradbury are holding elections today on tax measures and city council members. Arcadia voters will choose two City Council members from the candidates running--Gary Kovacic, John Wuo, Sho Tay, Henry Nunez, and Mary Dougherty--and vote on Measure D, the extension ofthe hotel room tax from a 30-day maximum to a 90-day stay. Arcadia's election is being conducted through an all-mail ballot for the first time.
Arcadians: "No" on Measure A, the repeal of Utility Users Tax (UUT) by Joan Schmidt. The utility tax is 12.5% of the city's $54.9 billion General Fund.
A parcel tax in Arcadia appears to pass. Voters appear to have narrowly approved a parcel tax measure that will raise $3.4 million for the Arcadia Unified School District each year for the next five years, according to preliminary results. If the outcome is finalized, property owners would pay $228 per parcel per year in an effort to stave off additional cuts in the classroom. Measure A, which required a two-thirds vote to pass, was approved by 67.61% of those who voted in the district's boundaries. The vote should be finalized tomorrow.
"State of the City" address was given by City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto at an event hosted by Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. Due mainly to solid property, utility and sales tax revenue, Arcadia has remained fiscally sound despite a sluggish state and national economy. Overall in 2014, the city received $56.9 million in revenue and spent $54.7 million.
Supervisor Schabarum joined with two other board members asking Assessor Alexander Pope to mail out property tax re-evaluation notices immediately so people will know before June 6 primary and they vote on Propositions 13 and 8.
The City of Arcadia is being sued by the People's Advocate, Inc., headed by Paul Gann, and the Arcadia Tax Reform Committee, headed by Jeff Dring. The lawsuit could set a state-wide precedent for post-Proposition 13 municipal financing.
Inflation and the energy shortage are causing the city management grave concern about meeting the budget. City Manager Lyman Cozad expects a $120,500 increase in sales tax from Fashion Park for the 1974-75 fiscal year. He also expects an $84,000 rise in property taxes.
Arcadia Citizen’s Financial Advisory Committee releases last report. The committee, an independent, ad-hoc advisory body of civic volunteers empaneled by the City Council to review the City’s General Fund long-range financial forecast and provide recommendations to the City Council for cost containment and/or revenue enhancements, recently released its final report. The 40-page report includes 15 recommendations to Arcadia City Council to address the $8,000,000 structural budget deficit. A key recommendation is for the city to consider increasing the city’s local sales tax rate by ¾ of one cent in order to maintain current levels of services.
A class action lawsuit filed against the city of Arcadia and Extended Stay Hotels claims the city "improperly levied a daily room tax" on guests staying beyond 30 days and violated state and local law.
Los Angeles County home sales dropped 8.6% last month from a year earlier. Arcadia, however, shows a 4.1% increase in median home price, from a year ago December. Arcadia's median home price was $692,000 last month. Figures for California state, Los Angeles and other San Gabriel Valley cities are shown.