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.
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.
Voters max out Arcadia sales tax. Huge lead for Measure A pushes levy to 10.25% ceiling set by state. The election was conducted exclusively by mail. The vote was for a .75% sales tax increase to bring the tax from 9.5% to 10.25%. This hike could bring in $8.6 million annually to keep city services, especially public safety, at current levels.
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 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.
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.
Arcadia voters have approved ballot Measure A with 2091 people voting yes and 643 voting no. The measure protects the city's right to collect taxes on cell phone use. Measure A will not raise 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.
City of Arcadia to place three measures on November 8, 2022 ballot. 1. Proposed City Charter Amendment Measure. The City Charter was last amended in 1998. The citizen-led Charter Review Committee recommends updates to mirror changes in state laws since 1998 and to reflect current local government standards, to include a) mirroring changes in state laws to increase voter turnout by moving the date of regularly scheduled city council elections from April in even-numbered years to the November Statewide General Election in even-numbered years. b) recognizing the city's change to by-district elections as required by California Voting Rights Act. c) Creating a rotation of mayor and mayor pro tem positions every 9.5 months to allow all council members to serve during their term. d) Change position of City Clerk from elected to appointed. e) other amendments to streamline government, utilize technology and increase transparency. 2. Two measures to increase locally controlled funding. One measure would increase Arcadia's local tax on stays at hotels and motels from 10% to 12%--similar rate to many neighboring cities. The other measure would enact a local tax on sports wagers if sports betting becomes legal in California through State Proposition 26, also on the November ballot
Arcadia voters will decide, in a special election next week, whether or not to approve ballot Measure A, which seeks to protect the city's right to collect taxes on cell phone usage. Measure A would not raise any taxes. The city already collects taxes on residential cell phone usage and is seeking to legally protect that practice by redefining what constitutes a telecommunications tax.
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.
Arcadia teachers and students unite for Measure A, the renewal of a parcel tax that helps provide stable school funding for Arcadias, on March 7 ballot. Previously approved in 2012, Measure A would authorize a "qualified special tax of $288 per parcel of taxable real estate property," an increase of $60 over the 2012 proposal. Citizen homeowners age 65 and over would be able to exempt their primary residence from the tax.
Arcadia will benefit from the State Municipal Advisory Reform Team : Enhanced Report (SMARTER) plan for restructuring local government finance which will help stop the city's dependence on sales tax.
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.
Arcadia certifies city council election victories for John Wuo and Gary A. Kovacic. The results were certified this week after election officials were able to verify and count 661 of the remaining 681 ballots of the April 10 election. There were 105 ballots that had to be disqualified because voters selected more than 2 candidates in the all-mail election. At least some of those were caused by an error in the ballots' Chinese-language instructions that directed voters to select no more than 3 instead of 2 candidates, prompting the city to send out correction notices. Gene Glasco was elected City Clerk. Measure D, the hotel room tax, passed.
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.