Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Meagan Harmon is the council’s staunchest advocate for housing, but she says she isn’t willing to tax the poorest people in the community to pay for it.

“At its very core, a sales tax is regressive,” Harmon said. “It just is. What does that mean? It means a sales tax like this is going to hit people with lower incomes harder. Any money that they spend on items that are subject to this tax will make up a larger percentage of their total income.”

Harmon rejected a proposed half-cent sales tax that went before the city’s Finance Committee, saying the city should instead consider an increase to the transient occupancy tax, pass a commercial vacancy tax or lower its reserves policy.

She said housing is a human right and a responsibility of the city, but “I struggle with taxing at a disproportionately impactful rate the very people who would need to make use of the housing that is built.”

The three-member Finance Committee — made up of Harmon, Councilman Eric Friedman and Councilwoman Alejandra Gutierrez — was unable to reach a consensus and instead voted to forward the proposal to the full City Council without a recommendation.

City finance staff proposed the half-cent sales tax to help address the structural deficit. Next year, the city is facing a $7.1 million budget shortfall.

Rising pension costs, inflation, and capital projects are all costs expected to escalate.

Finance Director Keith DeMartini and a team of consultants worked hard to convince the panel that the city needed the tax increase, and that it would be supported by voters.

The city’s current sales tax rate is 8.75%, which is the same as Goleta, Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo. Carpinteria’s sales tax rate is 9%.

Martini said that in other comparable tourism cities, however, such as Santa Monica, the sales tax is 10.25%.

A consultant team reported at the meeting that nearly six in 10 voters would support the sales tax measure.

The City Council must have a super majority vote (5 of the 7 members) to place the revenue measure on the ballot in November. Then the voters would need to approve it by a simple majority (50% plus 1) to enact the measure.

The City Council cannot raise taxes on its own. All new taxes and increases to existing tax rates require voter approval, Martini said.

The tax is estimated to raise about $15 million annually.

The proposed ballot language states that the sales tax would help maintain 9-1-1 emergency/fire/paramedic/police response, keep neighborhood fire stations open, improve housing affordability and address homelessness, and several other services.

Rob Fredericks, executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, said housing is a human need.

“I realize, for some, a sales tax is a very difficult path forward, but the city certainly does need a path,” Fredericks said. “Thank you for including affordable housing in this discussion.”

Harmon also pushed to make sure that if a sales tax increase were put on the ballot that groceries and baby diapers would be clearly exempted. Still, she said, the idea of exempting so-called “necessities” and “good” purchases but taxing other purchases is unfair.

“I struggle with this idea that a lower-income resident should only have fair, equal access to the necessities and that everything else we are willing to tax them at a higher, disproportionately impactful rate,” Harmon said. “To me, that is not in line for the vision of economic justice that I see for our city.”