Home › News › Local News
Oxnard OKs $150,000 campaign for sales tax
STORY TOOLS 
More from Local NewsThe Oxnard City Council on Tuesday approved a $150,000 information campaign to educate the public on the benefits of a half-cent sales tax increase.
Council members voted 4 to 1 to approve the plan, which earmarks $50,000 for Sacramento-based Madrid and Associates to design the six-month campaign.
City staff members have recommended asking voters in November to consider raising the sales tax in Oxnard to 7.75 percent. The measure seeks to raise about $10 million a year to increase city services, not balance the budget, City Manager Ed Sotelo said.
Fighting gangs and juvenile violence, providing affordable housing and reducing traffic congestion ranked as the three potential highest priorities for the money, according to a survey in September.
Community feedback during the campaign could refine those priorities or add others. The plan would involve direct mail, a Web site, public speaking by city staff members and a community advisory committee.
Councilman Tim Flynn voted no, saying he had "misgivings" about supporting an information campaign while having never once spoken with a city finance director about Oxnard's fiscal future.
Mayor Tom Holden countered that finance directors only track the city's money and do not set policies on using it.
Approving the information campaign was not the same as approving the tax, Councilman John Zaragoza said.
— From staff reports
Posted by imdunnfor on February 13, 2008 at 7:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So the city spends $150K of our money to sell us on the idea of giving them more money? Too bad they cut such a sweet deal to get Wal-Mart(and other businesses)in the city. Looking at Wal-Mart's push to get into Ventura, I really think they would have come anyway. Not to mention Oxnard's needs for money losing golf courses and "big league dreams".
Posted by Nosmo_King on February 13, 2008 at 7:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
In all fairness, shouldn't they also fund a campaign to show the benefit of reducing the sales tax?
Posted by shaver_one on February 13, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If these four councilmen want this sales-tax increase so bad, why don't they fund it directly? We don't need to spend $150,000 to some business in Sacramento. We don't need Big League Dreams to build a baseball park that nobody will go to. We don't need another theatre in RiverPark. We don't need to turn our skyline into West LA. But the City Council approved of all these projects without asking the citizens of Oxnard to vote on them. Now they want to increase our sales-tax...so they can give it to more developers, to build more projects that Oxnard does not want, nor need.
Posted by oxnardstruth1 on February 13, 2008 at 12:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
shaver_one - I think it's a good idea if you move out of Oxnard. Here the city officials are proactively being fiscally responsible and seeking public input and you are complaining about it. If the officials did it directly with out public input, you would still complain. As for positive activities/places for our children and active adults in Oxnard, Big League Dreams is an excellent way to go, we need the best for our community. Entertainment and sports in Oxnard should be top-notch.
I've have been reading your negative comments about Oxnard for the last 6 months, you are anti-Oxnardian. I suggest you move to Bakersfield or Arizona and live in the dessert, it's people like you that hurt Oxnard, move out!
Posted by stnerhno on February 13, 2008 at 5:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
To oxnardstruth1....you ignorance is astounding! "city officials are proactively being fiscally responsible" what planet do you live on?
Posted by bowtieted on March 26, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Additional sales tax is a scam by the city counil to grab more of our money.
What happened to all the property tax revenue the last few years?
Why do we have so many green city pickups criss crossing the city with one person inside? Why do we have so many city employees swarming to do landscape maintenance? Why do we pay city employees to pick up trash and other menial tasks? Why don't we let the private sector do that?
What does the city spend to fund retirement and other benefits for city employees?
What has the city council done to reduce costs and dependance on taxes?
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.