Tax passes, but not by landslide

56% of voters give nod to half-cent sales tax increase; City Council will appoint committee on spending.Less than one-third of Laguna’s registered voters cast ballots in the special election Tuesday, but a slim majority of those who did -- 55.7% -- voted to increase the city sales taxes by one-half percent.

The Measure A tax increase will go into effect July 1, the earliest that the Board of Equalization -- which collects and administers sales taxes -- can implement the measure, which is expected to bring in $1.7 million a year.

Measure A will help pay for city projects and programs that have been in limbo due to the cost of repairing infrastructure ruined in the June 1 Flamingo Road landslide -- not to pay for repairs in Bluebird Canyon, as has been widely reported.

“Everyone in town had a vested interest in passing Measure A,” said Anne Johnson, a member of the Yes on A Committee. “We needed it to ensure the purchase of fire and police equipment and to repair infrastructure throughout the city, including streets, sewer projects, beach stairs and sidewalks.”

Of the city’s 10 precincts, three did not approve the tax measure. The highest margin of approval was in the Bluebird Canyon area of Morningside Drive, where 74% voted yes.

Voters in outer Laguna rejected the measure by the highest margin -- with 64% voting no at a polling place on Club Drive near El Toro Road.

The measure will also fund an emergency disaster fund from the total of $8.5 million in Measure A revenues over six years -- a fund estimated at $2.5 million.

“Who knows where in the city the next emergency will happen,” Johnson said. “If the past has taught us anything, it has taught us that we must be prepared to take care of ourselves when disaster strikes -- and it will.”

The City Council had determined that repairs to the Bluebird Canyon hillside would continue even if the measure had not passed, City Manager Ken Frank said. It was the funding for other projects and to fill vacancies in the city’s emergency service departments that went south along with the Bluebird Canyon hillside.

“I am looking forward to the first good night’s sleep I have had since June,” City Manager Ken Frank said Tuesday when the voting totals were announced at about 9:30 p.m. “I want to thank everyone who supported Measure A.”

The Registrar of Voters Office certified the election results Wednesday, taking far less time than the 30 days allowed for certification.

“Anything less than a unanimous vote is always a disappointment when you believe in a cause you are supporting, but once again the people of Laguna Beach have shown that we are a community that looks after its own,” said Gary Waldrin, treasurer of the Yes on Measure A Committee.

“I think there were better alternatives, but Measure A was passed, and now we have it,” said Dennis Myers, chair of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce’s government activities committee.

“This is a good rallying cry to residents to shop and dine in Laguna Beach to ramp up the [sales tax] revenue.”

The Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn., not usually a supporter of tax increases, endorsed the increase, which will expire in six years.

“It is for a limited time and includes an emergency fund for the future,” association President Martha Lydick said. “We can live with that.”

More than half of the votes in the special election -- 2,821 of the 4,521 votes -- were cast by absentee ballot.

“I knew we had won as soon as I saw the absentee ballot results posted on the election website a few minutes after 8 p.m.,” said Yes on Measure A Committee member Norm Grossman.

The first posted returns posted showed 1,504 yes votes and 1,307 no.

“Historically, conservatives, who are most likely to oppose a tax increase, vote absentee,” Grossman said. That meant “ballots cast at the polls would have to be 60% against the increase.”

Acting Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley was in Laguna Beach on Election Day to Tuesday to observe polling procedures.

The total vote represented 24% of the 18,313 registered voters in Laguna Beach.

However, that number of registered voters is misleading. Registrations are periodically sent to the inactive files, but the files are not entirely purged, according to Registrar of Voters Communications Director Brett Rowley.

That means that voters who have moved out of town could still be registered in Laguna, as well as in their new locations.

The official population of Laguna is 24,589, according to the City Clerk’s Office, about 6,000 of them children, making the registration figures possible but not probable.

Grossman estimates the actual number of registered voters at about 15,000.

Latitude 33 bookstore owner Tom Ahern, who opposed the tax increase, was not surprised at the low turnout. He said residents were conflicted.

“People that I talked to in the bookstore were of two minds,” said Ahern, a Newport Beach resident. “They know that the city government is screwed up, but they are not willing to deny their neighbors the restoration of their streets.”

Nor was Ahern surprised at the results.

“I expected the vote,” he said. “But I am disappointed that people didn’t understand that we could do a lot better if we just cut out the useless people and programs at City Hall.”

The provisions increase the city sales tax by one-half percent, from 7.5% to 8.25%. That comes out to an additional 25 cents on every $50 spent.

Although not a fan of taxes, Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said it was important for the city that the measure will establish a disaster fund for future emergencies.

“We gave the voters the opportunity to decide whether or not to increase the sales tax to provide funding for projects and public safety projects in every Laguna Beach neighborhood that were jeopardized by the Bluebird Canyon landslide and to help protect our future,” Pearson-Schneider said.

Passage of the measure required only a simple majority because the allocations were not specified. Specified allocations would have required a two-thirds majority vote.

The council will appoint a seven-member Citizen’s Oversight Committee in January to monitor the distribution of the revenue. Applications should be submitted to the City Clerk’s Office in City Hall, 505 Forest Ave. Information: (949) 497-0705.