Please have some patience when you are voting in November — you will need stamina to get all the information you need to vote on the state and local issues appearing on the ballot, the candidates for national, state and local offices… and oh yeah, the person you are supporting at the top of the ballot.
The Board of Supervisors voted to put four issues on the ballot: reauthorization and expansion of community separators; a Transgenic Contamination Prevention Ordinance (GMO); and two revenue measures in the County, generating revenue for the Sonoma County Regional Parks and increasing the Transit Occupancy Tax from 9 to 12 percent
Support Measure J — a half-cent sales tax for Sonoma County Regional Parks for 10 years. We love our parks; it doesn’t matter if they are city, county, state or national parks, we flock to them. Sonoma County has built one of the most diverse park systems in California. Five million annual visitors visit 56 parks, trails and beaches across the County. The attendance has increased 38 percent since 2010, and more than 2,000 acres of parkland have been added in that time.
The tax would apply to unincorporated areas only and would generate an estimated $9.5m annually for improving and maintaining parks. It will allow Regional Parks to open parks, construct trails (multi-use trail between the Springs and Santa Rosa), expand existing parks (Maxwell Farms and Larson), remedy a long list of deferred maintenance in all of our parks, restore habitat for fish and wildlife and expand environmental education and health and recreation programs.
The tax would add 12 cents to the cost of a $25 bottle of wine and 50 cents to the cost of a $100 restaurant meal. Surely we can afford this to improve our parks.
The tax will apply to unincorporated areas only. Why is that? City residents support their local parks, and the County residents are able to enjoy them. But our Regional Parks do not have a dedicated source of funding. They are now supported through the County’s general fund, a small amount of TOT and memberships and leveraged grants and donations.
I hear all the time from residents in the Valley how important it is to improve our ball fields and provide more active recreational activities in our parks. And the master plans for Maxwell Farms and Larson Regional Parks are close to final approval. But we need millions of dollars to build those amenities for all of us.
Here is our chance to expand our parks and trails. It is a specific tax, meaning that it requires a two-thirds vote. There will be a citizen’s oversight committee that will regularly review how the funds are spent during the next 10 years. Please vote Yes on Measure J on your ballot in November.
Support Measure L — to increase TOT to 12 percent. What is TOT? Bed tax and TOT; both are names for Transient Occupancy Tax. TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) is a tax only on guests staying overnight at hotels, bed & breakfasts, campgrounds, vacation rentals, and similar overnight stay establishments. In the unincorporated area of Sonoma County the TOT rate is currently 9 percent.
The TOT rate has not been increased since 1992 when it was raised from 8 percent. It is lower than the rate in most local cities and comparable counties.
Why do communities charge a TOT tax? After all, doesn’t tourism contribute to the local economy? Tourism absolutely contributes to our local economy, creating 19,710 local jobs, or one in ten private sector jobs. More than 90 percent of businesses catering to tourists are locally owned.
But we know that tourism also has an impact on our community – from wear and tear on our roads, to emergency response, and the dwindling stock of workforce housing as homes are converted to vacation rentals. TOT tax collected by the County has helped to offset some of those impacts: 25 percent of TOT revenue goes to the County General Fund for projects like road repairs; eight grants totaling $90,000 to fire safety districts and departments throughout the county; funding of dispatch fees for fire and emergency services in the amount of $768,000; $150,000 to Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) to enforce vacation rental services codes throughout the week, and recently dedicated another $100,000 to night and weekend code enforcement of vacation rentals to ensure 24/7 accessibility; $1,000,000 of TOT revenue to develop workforce housing; support of local natural resources preservation, education and conservation effort; water quality protection such as Blue-Green Algae monitoring; and $611,000 for workforce development and scholarships. In addition, small TOT grants from each Supervisor fund local nonprofits.
Please vote Yes on Measure L on your ballot supporting the increase of the TOT rate to help address the impacts of tourism by investing in roads, emergency response, workforce housing for families and veterans, water quality protection and other County services. Raising the TOT is a fair way to recover the increased costs associated with visitor stays in the County.
And be patient to get all the way to the end of your ballot. It is important for our community.
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