Milpitas is reeling from more budget deficits, a situation compounded by the loss of its redevelopment agency. In response, just after midnight on Tuesday morning, the city council voted to declare a fiscal emergency.
That declaration will allow the city to put forth a revenue measure as early as this summer. And according to city officials, the unanimously declared a fiscal emergency lowered the threshold for passage from 2/3rds to just a simple majority. But before the issue goes to voters, the city has to first determine how the vote will go.
The city will be hiring an Oakland-based firm to perform public opinion polling to take voters temperatures. Four tax plans will be considered: two sales taxes, a parcel tax, and a utility user’s tax. The sales tax plans could raise up to $8 million per year.
From the San Jose Mercury News:
Milpitas City Council voted unanimously early Wednesday to adopt a resolution declaring a state of “fiscal emergency” for the city, allowing a general tax measure to go before Milpitas voters as early as this summer.
The council’s decision, which came well after midnight following a nearly six-hour meeting, proposes a new general tax that could raise revenue for local needs otherwise diverted by state actions that ended redevelopment agencies throughout California including Milpitas’ own agency Feb. 1, a $39 million hit to the city.
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