April 12, 2016 municipal election divides the community. The big issues are mansions (over-building) in Arcadia and Measure A, the repeal of the Utility Users Tax (UUT).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Arcadia seeks to extend the right to collect cell phone usage tax. Officials plan to hold a special election in May or June in 2009 for a ballot measure. If communicated to voters correctly, it should pass, because it would not raise the tax but protect the city's revenues. At stake is about $1 million in yearly revenue. To do that, voters must allow the city to legally redefine what a telecommunications tax is. Recent court rulings have suggested cities cannot tax cell phone use by relying on older telecommunications tax ordinances.
Arcadia Unified School District has faced the reality of mid-year school budget cuts for the past 3 years. To prepare for a possible fourth year of mid-year cuts, the AUSD school board is exploring the option of a parcel tax, an amount to raise hopefully a few million dollars that would help offset what the State is expected to take away. Arcadia School Board Vice President Joann Steinmeier and colleagues are investigating the need for a parcel tax and what form it might take to get passed at the March election.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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
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.
County Assessor reports solid growth for Arcadia in 2020 Assessment Roll. The Roll for 2020 has been closed and it reflects solid growth for Arcadia and the rest of the County. However, the Roll is pre-COVID. This comprehensive tally values more than 2.5 million real estate parcels in Los Angeles County and results in the very tax dollars that goes to pay for vital public services, such as healthcare, police, fire, schools, and even librarians, to name just a few. The County Assessor is constitutionally mandated to close the roll by the end of the Fiscal Year on June 30. The 2020 Assessment Roll has a total net value of $1.7 trillion, indicating the 10th year of consecutive growth. That value places $17 billion in the hands of the County to be used for those public services I just mentioned. This year the Roll has an added dynamic, the COVID-19 pandemic. Locally, Arcadia for 2020 came in at $18.3 billion for taxable values, which is a 4.4% increase over last year’s numbers. That includes 14,854 single-family homes, 809 apartment complexes, 995 commercial-industrial parcels for a grand total of 16,658 taxable properties. Growth is steady in Arcadia.
More importantly, that $18.3 billion translates into about $183 million for vital public services such as public safety, healthcare and public education that benefits Arcadia.