OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) – Those who live in the City of Oceanside will be heading to the polls in November. City staff is asking the City Council to give voters one more thing to mull over on election day: a possible sales tax increase.
City staff is asking the Council to approve a ballot item for the November 3rd election season for a half-cent increase on the Oceanside sales tax. It would increase from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent if approved by voters.
“We're looking for ways that we can generate the revenue necessary to continue to improve the quality of life in Oceanside,” Michael Gossman, Assistant City Manager for the City of Oceanside, said.
A City staff report stated that despite having additional money from a previous sales tax measure, the City of Oceanside says it doesn’t have enough money for important infrastructure projects across the city.
“The reason for that request is that while we’ve made a lot of headway financially and everything in Oceanside in terms of improving the quality of life, there’s still a lot of critical infrastructure needs that remain and remain unfunded,” Gossman said.
Gossman said that many have asked for improvement on roadways and the lack of sand on the beaches. The projects that are in need of the potential funding from adjusting the sales tax would include more sand on the beach, paving roads, building a new Oceanside Police Department headquarters to replace the one in a retrofitted grocery store in a strip mall, a new pier bridge, and a new Oceanside Fire Station 8 to replace a leased location.
“We have the land. We have the design, but we don't have the money to construct a permanent purpose-built fire station,” Gossman said.
The half-percent sales tax increase would generate about $20 million a year.
“The other factors to take into account, so if you look at the construction cost index that the state produces since 2019, the cost of construction has increased 50%, and it continues to increase,” Gossman said. “So the other thing is that frankly, the cost of construction is just outpacing the increases in the revenues that we are receiving.”
Some people in Oceanside were on opposite sides of the proposal.
“I'm fine. Oh, we've got to take care of our infrastructure. We have to take care of our city,” Joan Bockman said.
“I think we are being taxed enough as is. I feel like the city has enough money. And we just haven't seen anything change with that money,” Tyler Fowler said.
This month, the City of Oceanside approved its $743 million budget for next year.
ABC 10News asked Gossman whether the city tried to move funding around to avoid having to ask voters to approve a sales tax.
"So we're looking for ways to use, most effectively use the dollars that are given to us,” Gossman said. “But frankly, with the cost of construction the way it's going, the cost of the services and everything, we're running into the same pinch that everybody else is. So the question is, do we want these improvements to the city or don't we?"
