Candidates seeking the Fifth District seat on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors talked taxes, budgets and more during a Guadalupe forum on Thursday as they aired their political differences.

The standing-room-only crowd filled the Guadalupe City Hall Council Chambers for the two-hour forum organized by the League of Women Voters of North Santa Barbara County ahead of the June 2 primary election.

Current Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino is not seeking a fifth term to represent northern Santa Maria neighborhoods, the city of Guadalupe and the unincorporated community of Tanglewood.

Cory Bantilan, Lavagnino’s 15-year chief of staff; Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, a Santa Maria City Council member and attorney; and Ricardo Valencia, Santa Maria-Bonita School District board member and Santa Maria High School teacher, answered multiple questions on Thursday. 

Amid the county’s budget shortfall, candidates spoke about whether they backed boosting taxes to raise revenue.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people walking precincts, I’ve knocked on 6,000 doors, I haven’t heard a single person ask me to raise their taxes,” Bantilan said.

Valencia said the county should use creative ways to boost revenues, such as taxing luxury homes.

“I think it’s important we look at potentially taxing those extremely high-value residences to generate income so those that are able to pay their fair share of taxes do so,” Valencia said. 

Aguilera-Hernandez said tax increases should be decided upon by voters, not elected officials.

“Government should not be done in a silo. It should really incorporate the residents of the city, and if the residents of the city and the county want to do that then that’s when it should be done,” she said.

They also revealed the non-negotiable items they believe should not get axed as the county faces financial shortfalls.

“We shouldn’t be laying off social workers. They are the eyes and ears of our community. They keep our children safe,” Aguilera-Hernandez said. 

She questioned the county spending $4 million for electric vehicle (EV) chargers. 

“We are saying that charging your car, your electric car that most of us don’t have, is more important than protecting our children and our families and our most vulnerable,” she added. 

Bantilan placed public safety as the basic responsibility of the government, along with roads.

But he noted state and federal funding for programs facing cuts can’t easily be replaced.

“There are only so many times you can pay your car payment with the pennies in the couch,” Bantilan said. “You can only do that once or twice.”

Skipping a one-time project such as EV chargers doesn’t lead to a sustainable budget, he added. 

Facing a budget crisis, the county should delay or defer capital projects such as expanding the Northern Branch Jail, Valencia said.

Instead, he called for support services to help people “live with dignity and get back on their feet.”

He also pushed for an inspector general to audit spending.

“I think those are resources well spent and in the long run will save us a ton of money,” he said. 

The trio also talked about emergency preparedness in the wake of the 2023 flooding that sent Santa Maria River water into a neighborhood and farm fields. 

“I started saying I’m going to give you some hard truths — the first one is I don’t believe there will ever be a levee extended west of Highway 1,” Bantilan said, adding the federal government won’t fund it.

Still, he said, steps could be taken to beef up protection for Guadalupe neighborhoods. 

“I think what we need to try to do is somehow harden the berm we put in,” Bantilan said.

Valencia said it’s important to get to the root causes of fires and floods. 

“Climate change is destroying our beloved community here in Guadalupe, so I think we need to be honest about the sources of those causes,” Valencia said, pushing for more clean energy projects.

Aguilera-Hernandez called for an investment in infrastructure.

“When we do more preventative work, it is actually less expensive, and it actually improves how safe we feel,” she said. 

Recordings of the Guadalupe forum and Monday’s Santa Maria forum will be posted on the North County League’s YouTube channel.

If one candidate doesn’t receive more than 50% of the votes in the June 2 primary election, the top two vote-getters will face off in the Nov. 3 general election.