Racing to get Lompoc’s sales-tax hike approved ahead of Santa Barbara County, the City Council directed staff to take steps to put the measure on the June primary election ballot. 

On Tuesday, the council voted 3-2 to move toward asking the city’s voters to approve a 0.5% increase for the sales and use tax to collect funding for streets, sidewalks and storm drainages for a 15-year span.

Mayor Jim Mosby was joined by Council Members Dirk Starbuck and Steve Bridge in voting in favor, while Council Members Jeremy Ball and Victor Vega voted against the motion.

The current sales tax in the city stands at 8.75%. If voters approve the hike, the new rate paid within the Lompoc city limits would go to 9.25%, generating an estimated $3.8 million more annually for the city.

Much of the discussion centered on whether to pursue a general or special tax. A general tax would have fewer restrictions for spending while a special tax’s proceeds must go to specific uses.

In addition to how the funds get spent, a general tax requires 50% plus one vote to pass while a special tax needs larger support, with 66.7% needed. 

“A special tax, I think, is important. The competence of a government to spend tax money is very questionable with many, but with a special tax it takes any questions out of what we can do with it,” Starbuck said.

Ball pushed for a general tax due to a lower threshold for adoption and flexibility for future spending.

“I think there should be a discussion on a more balanced approach. I know there’s a fear from the council if there’s a general tax then some future council will do X, Y and Z, but that’s what the people elect people up here to do is make wise decisions,” Ball said. 

“Again we could have perfect streets and still have people that don’t feel safe,” he added.

“It is a gamble at certain levels,” Mosby said. “My argument and discussion before is nobody is cheerleading ‘fix the asphalt,’ but I hear it every day about the potholes that are throughout town.”

Bridge said he didn’t have a preference between a special or general tax. 

“I do believe it will be easier for me to convince people to vote for something they know they’re going to get other than, ‘We’re here from the government, we need more money,’” Bridge said.

“That pushes me a little bit toward a special (tax). I certainly don’t want the county spending any more of the money that Lompoc needs.”

Lompoc reportedly has a backlog in street and related projects of approximately $70 million backlog, prompting the push to ask voters for the tax hike. 

Currently, state law caps a jurisdiction’s sales tax rate at 9.25% so Lompoc is seeking to get its measure passed first. 

“So if the county passes a half-cent tax…we would be precluded from passing a tax?” Bridge asked. 

“That’s correct,” Management Services Director Christie Donnelly said.

“Unless we get there first, right?” Mosby asked. 

City Attorney Jeff Malawy said if the county passed the tax first, the city could not adopt its own tax hike. 

If both the city and county tax hikes get approved by voters, it would create a dilemma needing to be resolved by a judge or the state, he added. 

But the same situation involving Sebastopol and Sonoma County led to a special state legislature action to raise the cap and allow both taxes to be implemented. 

After the meeting, Lompoc officials said that if countywide voters pass a sales/use tax hike and a Lompoc tax increase doesn’t get approved, the county tax would be charged in the unincorporated areas of the county as well as each city.

County leaders confirmed a sales tax measure may provide one avenue to boost revenues as the county deals with budget shortfalls.

But staff has not made a recommendation, and no decisions have been made whether to proceed with a tax measure proposal, Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta, county public information officer, told Noozhawk.

The county’s sales tax rate in the unincorporated areas now stands at 7.75%.

County officials confirmed they are researching what would happen if its future tax hike gets approved if a city has hit the cap or is near it. Santa Barbara city’s rate already reached the 9.25% limit while Carpinteria is at 9%.

The Lompoc council’s discussion occurred after staff revealed the results of a FlashVote survey that collected opinions of slightly more than 200 people. 

One question asked, “If either the city or the county was going to collect an extra 0.5% sales tax and decide how to spend it, who would you prefer to see doing that?”

Most respondents, or 78%, favored the city of Lompoc while 6% supported Santa Barbara County, and 16% answered not sure.

The council may take the formal action to put the special sales and use tax measure on the June ballot during the panel’s Jan. 20 meeting.