By Mary O’KEEFE

On Tuesday the Glendale City Council voted to place a 0.75% sales tax onto November’s ballot.

All councilmembers voiced their concerns about voting for a tax increase; however, in the long run, they felt that, if they didn’t increase the tax, the state or Los Angeles County would and therefore city monies would leave Glendale.

According to Bob Elliot, Glendale’s finance director, the proposed local 0.75% sales tax measure would be a general purpose tax requiring the approval of a simple majority of voters. The new tax is expected to generate $30 million annually. The sales tax that is presently at 9.5% would rise to 10.25%.

During Elliot’s presentation, he stated that currently Glendale receives 1.0% out of the 9.5% sales tax. He estimated that the City of Glendale combined tax will generate $90 million in 2018-19.

Many cities have made the decision to raise their own sales tax.

“Pasadena approved it [Monday],” Elliot said.

The concern is that LA County, the state of California or other authorities will ask for tax increases that will see money leave the area and the City will not have control over the funds. According to Elliot, the AQMD is analyzing a potential 0.25% sales tax for air quality projects and LA County is testing the likelihood of placing a revenue ballot measure to address homelessness.

During the presentation, Councilmember Ara Najarian took issue with Elliot’s presentation stating he felt the City of Glendale received more funding from the Metro Board that Najarian serves on. Elliot responded that the City does get funding from entities like the Metro, but that is on a project-by-project basis.

Councilmember Vrej Agajanian asked where the money would be spent if voters approved the tax. He did request the funds be placed as a line item in the budget so it is clear where the money is spent. City Manager Yasmin Beers assured the Council the funds would, if approved, be on a line item and would be spent in areas approved by the Council.

Agajanian continued with his concern that the new money would be spent on city employee salaries and he would rather have it targeted to other issues like affordable housing.

“I am worried the County or somebody [else] will come and grab this 0.75% from us,” he said.

He added he would vote to approve the sales tax measure on the ballot because of the one sentence in the description of the measure that stated the City Council will determine where the funds are spent.

  Mary Okeefe