A longstanding Fiesta tradition could be in jeopardy.
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has launched a crackdown on unlicensed vendors selling confetti-filled eggs — cascarones — during Santa Barbara’s annual Old Spanish Days Fiesta, which began on Wednesday and runs through Sunday.
Seven enforcement agents swarmed downtown unexpectedly on Wednesday, according to Anthony Wagner, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara Police Department.
They approached “maybe hundreds” of egg vendors, and informed them that they were breaking the law and facing stiff fines, potential misdemeanors and a seizure of the eggs.
The bilingual agents directed the vendors to fill out an online form to order to comply with the law, or to drive to a Ventura office to apply for a termporary permit for the rest of the week.
The agents told the vendors that they would be back on Thursday to take “enforcement action.”
In the meantime, the agents met with the Police Department.
“The Santa Barbara Police Department informed the agents that most of the egg vendors were members of our Latino community, predominantly Spanish-speaking, potentially lower socio-economically, possibly marginalized immigrants, and any heavy-handed enforcement action could alarm and upset a pre-existing, stable and positive relationship with some of the most vulnerable members of the fabric of our community, not to mention any future intelligence gathering partnerships to solve crime,” Wagner said.
Wagner said some of the vendors could have been confused and “not understand the distinction between a state tax agent and a more daunting interaction with federal authorities.”
Wagner added that most, if not all, non-compliant egg vendors did not possess the necessary financial infrastructure to sustain an audit.
As a compromise, the city worked with the agents to ensure that no enforcement action would take place this year.
“Instead, the agents would pivot to an education campaign to inform future egg vendors, on Thursday and Friday, that next year the Tax and Fee Administration would be conducting an enforcement action during Fiesta,” Wagner said. “In turn, this will give our municipality ample time to work with the community to ensure full compliance next year.”
The making of confetti-filled eggs, or “cascarones,” is a decades-long Santa Barbara tradition during the Old Spanish Days Fiesta.
Vendors, typically Latinos, save eggs throughout the year, decorate them, and then sell them on State Street during the citywide celebration.
It’s a cultural tradition for many Latinos, who enlist their friends and family members to partake in the activity, which involves carefully breaking the egg at the top to keep the shell mostly intact, then stuffing of them with confetti.
After the egg is filled, the vendors decorate them, with paints, glitter, freehand-drawings, or other artistic features.
Yoveli Saligan was one of the vendors who the state cops approached on Wednesday.
“They want us to get a permit so we can pay taxes,” Saligan told Noozhawk. “I don’t mind, but the way they came and told us was so rude. We’re OK with that as long as they give us a notice”
Saligan said they could have instead just made a flyer and distributed it to everyone and said, “This is what we are going to do next year, the new rules.”
No one knew that they would have to pay taxes, Saligan said.
“They didn’t even tell anybody and some of the people they just got afraid and some people didn’t show up (on Thursday),” Saligan said. “Some of the sellers didn’t show up today (Thursday). We didn’t know what to expect today. Some of the people didn’t come because they said they were going to be removed from here.”
For Saligan, a single mother of four children, the annual event isn’t a huge moneymaker.
“We really work hard all year long,” Saligan said. “We really like it. I think it is a fun activity for everybody, for the family. We paint the eggs all year long.”
She collected the eggs from the ones her family ate throughout the year, plus her sister works at a restaurant where they got additional eggs. Even her neighbors donate the eggshells. She sells the eggs for anywhere from 25 cents to $2, depending on how elaborate and fancy they are.
“We decorate and paint every egg by hand,” she said. “It takes a lot of time and we don’t really get a lot of money. I think the eggs make the fun. It’s all colorful and it doesn’t hurt anybody.”
Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo said the enforcement action came “out of the blue.”
“It’s not comfortable to us, but we have to cooperate,” Murillo said.
Murillo said the confetti eggs are a big part of the Fiesta tradition, but it’s “been years” since she has cracked an egg on anyone’s head because “it’s litter that gets into the storm drains.”
“Locals and visitors alike participate in the confetti egg tradition, and the practice will have to adjust to this requirement by the state,” Murillo added.
Nina Johnson, assistant to the City Administrator, said the city wants to “protect a community tradition.”
“We appreciated that the state tax agents did not implement any enforcement actions that would disrupt the Fiesta celebration,” Johnson said. “Instead they provided vendors with warnings and instructions to obtain their sellers’ permits.
“It’s hard to estimate the impact. Some filled out the online forms immediately but we don’t have the numbers. It’s likely that some vendors will not want to register for a state tax permit.”
Noozhawk Executive Editor Tom Bolton contributed to this report.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
