Latest / Groundwork Policy / 2026 Ventura & Santa Barbara County Measures: What They Actually Do
Transcript
- Sean Bhardwaj: Today, a $350 million water bond for work the district says has to be done whether it's funded or not. James Joyce III: Two cities that would sit at the ceiling state law sets on sales tax, and a third city whose council decided not to ask its voters. Sean Bhardwaj: Two hotel taxes paid mostly by people who can't vote on them. James Joyce III: Three school districts and a college asking to build while enrollment falls in two of the three. Sean Bhardwaj: and a cannabis company that asked to be taxed. This is Groundwork, the podcast where we take what's being decided at the local, regional, and state levels and tell you what it actually does to you, your business, and your community. And most importantly, what you can do about it. I'm Sean Bhardwaj,, I work with business owners and leaders, so I read every policy the way they would. What will this do to my organization? James Joyce III: And I'm James Joyce. I was trained as a journalist and I've worked inside government for more than a decade, so I know some of the players and how the game gets played. We do the homework and follow the money so you see what each choice gets you, and we'll each tell you where we land. Where you land is your call. Sean Bhardwaj: Groundwork's California 2026 ballot rundown is sponsored by the Ventura County Economic Development Association, VCEDA. Public policy shapes the environment in which businesses operate, making it important for business leaders to stay informed. For more than 75 years, VCEDA has brought together business leaders and policymakers to support a favorable business climate throughout Ventura County. Learn more at VCEDA.org VCEDA takes no position on these ballot measures and had no editorial control over the series content. James Joyce III: As the deadline to cast your ballot nears, we're coming to the end of our election series on the local and state measures. Sean, what's the most interesting policy conversation you've had this week? Sean Bhardwaj: Affordable housing. It's not really well understood, but something that many people have strong opinions about. I've been getting deeper into it this week and learning what Prop 1 would actually be funding. That's the $11.25 billion the state would borrow for housing, most of it for low interest loans, to build and fix up apartments for low-income renters. It's really interesting stuff and probably worth an episode or two of its own. James, what about you? James Joyce III: So far it's been more of a philosophical conversation around Prop thirty nine, really looking at w do we need voter IDs? And that is a conversation that's been around since voting has been expanded to more groups of people and some of the challenges that that might bring and some of the opportunities that that might bring. And so it's been really interesting to hear philosophically where people are going with that kind of a conversation. Sean Bhardwaj: Alright, this is our last episode of the California 2026 ballot rundown, and we're gonna look at the measures a little bit closer to home for us. There's 14 of them on the ballots across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and we're gonna take them in groups based on how you'd pay. So we're gonna look at property taxes. Bonds, city sales taxes, hotel taxes, and a few that didn't fit neatly into any of the groups. James Joyce III: First up, the measures you'd pay through your property tax. That's a tax assessed on property owners and usually described by what it would cost an owner for every $100,000 of assessed value of land and buildings they owned. Most of them are bonds. The districts borrow the money up front. The owners pay it back through that tax over the years, spread out usually over 20 to 30. Among those, Measure D would let the United Water Conservation District borrow up to three hundred and fifty million dollars repaid by property owners from Oxnard and Port Hueneme up to Santa Paula, Fillmore, and This is the biggest dollar figure on either county's local ballot. Sean Bhardwaj: James, for all of us who are unfamiliar, what does a water district like United Water do? James Joyce III: Well, it doesn't sell water to your house. It catches Santa Clara River water and sends it into the ground, refilling the ground aquifers. it supplies the farms, cities, water companies that pump from that groundwater. Sean Bhardwaj: Okay, so nobody loves a new tax. What's the district's case for this one? James Joyce III: Well, the district's case is that it isn't optional. three requirements force this work from dam safety regulators, a federal court, and a state groundwater plan. what it really is about is a deadline. the district says the regulators and the court set the timeline and that Lake Piru itself is at stake if this doesn't pass. Sean Bhardwaj: Here's what Measure D does. The district would sell up to $350 million in bonds over time. That would be repaid by a property tax of about $24 per $100,000 of assessed value. The assessed value is what the county sets for your property, and it's usually a little bit below what the house or building would sell for. The district estimates this costed about $121 a year for the average homeowner, and it would run for 30 years. And it needs two-thirds of the vote to pass. The oversight for all of this is the water district's own board, annual audits, and public progress reports. There's no citizens committee specifically. The money goes to three projects. The biggest is $314 million for the Santa Felicia Dam, which holds Lake Piru. A seismic study in 2012 found that the dam's intake tower is highly vulnerable, and about 237,000 people live downstream. James Joyce III: Okay, and if regulators don't like the plan for this project? Sean Bhardwaj: The district says federal and state dam regulators could refuse it a new license or set conditions it can't meet. In its own words, that could mean decommissioning the dam and closing Lake Pyro. James Joyce III: So what would losing the dam mean for people who only know Lake Pyru as a campground or as a fishing hole like me? Sean Bhardwaj: Well, the lake is part of how the district refills groundwater downstream. By the district's account, losing the dam would cut back that recharge and close the lake for good. And taking it out could cost as much as fixing it or even more. The second project they're looking for funding for is that $104 million for the Freeman Diversion near Satakoi. After environmental groups sued, a federal court ordered the district to build a better fish passage there. James Joyce III: And the third project, what about that? Sean Bhardwaj: The third is a $51 million project for a plant that treats salty groundwater, part of the area's state required plan to keep seawater out of the aquifer. This measure is titled A Water Supply Conservation Water Quality Bond, and about two thirds of it goes to the dam safety. The three projects together come to about $469 million. Grants and low interest federal loans could cover about $115 million of it, and this bond is to cover most of the rest of that. This is a priority for the district. They think it's gonna be in total about a billion dollars in work. and they don't have a full plan for how they're gonna pay for everything else, but these are sort of the must-do items up front. James Joyce III: Okay, so I understand that. So what if this fails? What happens to those projects? Sean Bhardwaj: The district says the work still has to happen and that the alternative is not going to be status quo. They told the BC reporter that paying for it out of the district's coffers instead would make rates skyrocket for the next decade. When the work's required either way, James, what should decide how it's paid for? James Joyce III: Well, since water is a public utility, that should be decided by the public, by either voters, elected representatives on a water board, or some mixture of both. Well, Sean, let's do our box scores, which is something we do with every measure. We each give it a number from one to ten, one being not at all, and ten being a perfect match for whether the label matches what's inside. It's not about whether it's the right tool for the job. We'll get to that later. I'll start with this one, giving this measure a seven for me. The ballot question says it pays for facilities needed to comply with government regulations, and that's what it does. Sean, your box score for this one. What's that? Sean Bhardwaj: An 8 everything it pays for, like you said, is on the label and there's no hidden mechanics. What it doesn't tell you though is that by the district's account, the work has to happen whether this passes or not. And I think because they can't lobby for it, that's not as big of a talking point as it might be in other instances. James, who's lined up on this one on either side? James Joyce III: Well, the Ventura County Taxpayers Association and labor groups, they support it. And the district says there's no formal opposition. A district can't campaign for its own measures, so what it puts out has to stick to information, not a pitch, which you just referenced. As far as we found, no campaign committee is formed on either side. Sean Bhardwaj: Why is a taxpayers association backing this one? James Joyce III: We couldn't find either group's reason on record. My guess, spreading the cost over 30 years of bond payments is easier to carry than rates that skyrocket. And for labor, it's construction work. Sean, what does this do for the district's customers? Sean Bhardwaj: For businesses, especially farms on the Oxnard Plain, this is about whether there's groundwater to pump, whether salt water gets into it, and how much it costs. The district says seawater in the aquifer would limit which crops growers can plant. On the cost side, every business that owns property in the district pays this tax for 30 years right alongside the homeowners. And if the district raised its charges instead, those rate hikes would land on many of the same businesses and people. James Joyce III: So if you live in Pyro or Fillmore, you live downstream from that dam. And the district counts the lake as a water source for fighting wildfires. If you rent, the district says you won't pay a new tax directly, though your landlord decides how to set the lease. Sean Bhardwaj: Across the district, the bill is shared by every property owner, whether they live below the dam or on the coast in Port Wineme. What everyone gets is the groundwater the city's pump from too and a barrier against the ocean. Is a thirty year property tax bond a good way to pay for dam safety, a court ordered fish passage, and seawater protection that the district says it has to build anyway? James Joyce III: When the work is required either way, the real question is how you pay for it. And you pay for a damn over its life, not in one bill. I'd want the district more up front on the label though. And with no citizens committee, I'd want residents watching where the money's going. Sean Bhardwaj: When a requirement's already on the books, a long term bond is how a business would finance it too. You match the payments to the life of the asset. I'd want the board to commit to selling only what the outside money can't cover, since it isn't required to sell the full three hundred and fifty million. James, in this instance, the farms and cities that buy the water aren't the only ones who would pay here. Why put it on every property owner? James Joyce III: Charging the farms in cities that buy the water is closer to who uses it, and it's how the district pays for routine upkeep. For work this size on this timeline, the district says it's boxed in. It says state rules limit what it can charge, and so does what its customers can absorb. So charges couldn't raise the money in time. For this, a yes means United Water could sell up to three hundred and fifty million dollars in bonds for these projects, repaid by property tax while the bonds are outstanding. That tax would run About $24 for every $100,000 of assessed value, and a no means the district couldn't sell them. Sean Bhardwaj: If it passes, where should people be watching? James Joyce III: United Waters board decides when to sell bonds and how much. And it doesn't have to sell all of it. Their progress reports are where you'd see the money move. Sean Bhardwaj: Who's on that board? James Joyce III: You got seven directors, each elected from a part of the district. They serve four-year terms, and you can easily look that up on the internet. Sean Bhardwaj: And if it falls short of the two thirds that it needs? James Joyce III: The same board decides how to pay for the work another way, since the orders don't go away. It's board meetings are where that gets decided either way. Sean Bhardwaj: That covers United Waters Measure D. We'll come back to property taxes when we talk about the schools. But next, let's talk about the measures on city sales taxes. Oxnard's Measure E takes a sales tax that's set to end in 2029 and give it no end date. Up the coast, Santa Maria's Measure C would add a new half cent, and both cities would sit at the ceiling state law sets for their counties. And in between, Ventura's City Council decided not to ask its voters for a sales tax increase at all. Taking the end date off of that, Even if we're keeping the same rates that everyone is used to, is gonna bother some people. James, why do cities reach for a sales tax instead of the property or income taxes we've already talked about and that people pay? James Joyce III: So a city can't tax your income. State law bars that. And a city can't raise its share of the property tax, which is set by a state formula. So that leaves the sales tax as one of the few taxes a city can ask its own voters to raise. Sean Bhardwaj: The catches who pays it. A sales tax takes a bigger bite from people with the least. The lowest earning fifth of California households pay about 7.6% of their income in sales and excise taxes. The top 1% only pay about 1%. Here's what Oxnard's Measure E changes. Oxnard had a half-cent sales tax called Measure O that voters passed in 2008, and it's set to end in March of 2029. With a second sales tax that voters passed in 2020, Oxnard's rate is 9.25%. It raises about $20 million for the city every year. Measure E just takes away the end date of that first tax. So it's gonna run until voters decide to do something about it. Nothing else changes. Because it's a general tax, the council of the city decides what it pays for. The ballot question requires oversight, audits, and a public disclosure of the spending. James, can you tell me a little bit more about who sets that nine and a quarter percent ceiling and why? James Joyce III: So state law caps what local governments in a county can add on top of the state's rate, and Oxnard's already there. My read on the timing by asking now, three years early, the city leaves itself one more November election cycle to try again if this measure fails. Oxnard says it needs the money. Its costs for construction, utility, fuel, and health care are up, and federal, state, and county money is getting cut. Without the money, the city says essential services like police and fire could be jeopardized. We couldn't find the opponent's reason in anything we could read, but it's safe to say that taxes don't have many fans from the jump. Sean Bhardwaj: Santa Maria's sales tax is to raise new money, about $13 million per year. The city says it would go to parks, the library, streets, and keeping the city's aquatic center open year round. And in Carpenteria, Measure I adds a quarter cent, which would bring an estimated $700,000 a year for the city's general fund. The city points to more than $24 million in street work that it's had to put off, and James Joyce III: And the city of Ventura went the other way. There, city officials wanted a full one cent increase. that would have raised about thirty-six million dollars a year for public safety and infrastructure projects. after a long public hearing back in June, the council turned it down four to three. Sean Bhardwaj: Why'd they say no? James Joyce III: One council member who voted no asks, before we ask our citizens to give more, what have we done? Another who voted yes said we need to let the voters decide. So Ventura stays at 7.75%, and next door Oxnards is at 9.25%. So the cost of things at the register in Ventura will appear slightly cheaper. Than in Oxnard. Sean, does Oxnard's measure E do what it says on the box? Sean Bhardwaj: It gets a nine from me because all it does is take off the end date and it says so. What's yours? James Joyce III: I'd give this one an eight. The question says renewing and it says until ended by voters. So it's all there. Renewing usually means another term and this one doesn't have a term. Sean Bhardwaj: Who's backing these and who isn't? James Joyce III: In Oxnard, the supporters on the ballot are the police officers and firefighters association, a former mayor and a county supervisor. The opponents include the city's own treasurer and a local group called Moving Oxnard forward. We couldn't find campaign money on either side of any of these three measures. so it's not real clear, and that's not untypical for a lot of these local measures. Sean, if you run a shop in Oxnard, Santa Maria, or Carpenteria, what does it mean for you? Sean Bhardwaj: For businesses, these taxes land on the price your customer pays at the register and on what you buy for the business in town. It could make customers near the edges of those cities choose a different spot, potentially with a lower tax rate. But at the same time, the tax rate for each city isn't general knowledge for most people, and driving several miles to save a few cents probably just loses you money and fuel costs. As an example, in Santa Maria, the new tax is gonna add 50 cents. To a hundred dollar purchase, not counting groceries or prescriptions. The money raised also pays for things your business leans on, like police and fire services in Oxnard and for streets in all three cities. And in Oxnard, a no doesn't lower anyone's taxes until twenty twenty nine. James, when a city is at the ceiling, what should it reach for next to raise money? James Joyce III: Well, if you don't have the money to spend, cut out what you are spending. The next budget gap gets closed some other way. Fees, cuts, or a different tax. In that case, what you'd notice is the pool, the parks, and the library not being kept up or closing. In Santa Maria, the city manager says that without the tax, parks, youth programs, and the library are on the chopping block next fiscal year. That's after the city's already cut a structural deficit of about $25 million, roughly in half. Sean Bhardwaj: None of these three hides anything, so let's set the box score aside for this one. Is a city sales tax a good way to pay for city services? James Joyce III: It has a real case. Everyone who shops in town pays it, visitors and commuters included, so residents don't carry it alone. Carpenteria's fact sheet makes that point clearly. And as a general tax, the council can move the money to wherever the need is that year. Sean Bhardwaj: It has real costs too. It leans hardest on the people with the least, which we covered up top. And it rides on spending, so it drops when the economy does. Statewide, local sales tax fell 3.5% the year the pandemic hit. For businesses and communities, that means the services you lean on get squeezed in the same year your sales are down. James Joyce III: By state law, a penny of the base rate goes back to the city where the sale happens. So a store brings in a city money that housing doesn't. That pushes cities to chase stores. In a nineteen ninety nine statewide survey, city officials ranked new stores well ahead of new homes for the open land in their towns. Researchers still argue over how much that changes what gets built. Sean Bhardwaj: Where I land, it's a fair tool for a city that's shown its work first and managed its budget well, which is the test Ventura's council used. The one small problem I have is with Oxnard's measure E and its removal of the end date. Attacks that's supposed to run until voters end it should still come back to them every so often, even if it's extended for a long time. James Joyce III: For me, a general tax at the same rate with audits and spending disclosure is a reasonable way to keep a city running. Sean Bhardwaj: A yes on Oxnard's measure E means the city's half cent sales tax keeps going until voters end it. A no means it ends in March of twenty twenty nine as measure O set back in two thousand eight. A yes in carpenteria adds a quarter cent until voters end it. And a yes in Santa Maria adds half a cent. A no in either keeps the rate right where it is. If Oxnards passes, who's deciding where the money goes? James Joyce III: That's the Oxnard City Council. With a general tax, its budget decides where the twenty million dollars goes, and the spending disclosure the measure requires is the report to read. Sean Bhardwaj: And if voters say no? James Joyce III: The tax keeps running until 2029, and the same council decides whether to come back to voters before then. In Santa Maria and Carpinteria, it's the same door. Your city council at budget time. And in Ventura, if you want the council to ask or not to, four of those council seats are on the ballot this election. So that desire could change and you should let them know where you stand. Sean Bhardwaj: And that covers the sales taxes. James Joyce III: Now let's talk about the two hotel taxes on these ballots. Simi Valley's Measure A would raise its hotel tax from 10% to 12%. Guadalupe's Measure J would double its hotel tax, also up to 12%. The people who pay both are mostly visitors, and visitors don't vote in those cities. Sean Bhardwaj: CME's Measure A raises about $400,000 a year for general city services like 911 Response, Police, Streets, and Senior Services. It has independent audits and it runs until voters end it. Guadalupe charges 6% today on stays of 30 days or less, and its new rate under Measure J reaches RV parks and campgrounds too. It would raise up to about $20,000 a year. The council wants more hotels in town and it's setting the rate before they come. James Joyce III: Supporters of Guadalupe's increase say today's six percent rate is lower than every other city in either Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo counties. We couldn't find anyone organized against either measure because a hotel tax is about the easiest yes a council can ask for. Sean Bhardwaj: For hotels, it's a price their guests see on the bill. Take a $200 room, CME's increase adds about $4 a night. For a hotel developer, the tax rate and pass-on costs affects the math on occupancy and run rate. And if you're running a business that's adjacent to hospitality, you want higher occupancy and for visitors to have more dollars to spend with you while they're in town. James Joyce III: For people in Guadalupe, the city's facing a $3.6 million deficit. The hotel tax would cover about half of 1% of it at the current hotel bed capacity. This is mostly about hotels that aren't built yet. Sean Bhardwaj: But James, is a hotel tax a good way to pay for city services? And how much should a city lean on visitors who can't vote there? James Joyce III: One gets a both and from me. It's a fair way to have visitors pay towards the roads and police that they use while they're here, as long as the rate doesn't send them to the next town. It's a reasonable tool, and it's a little too easy. I'd want a council asking residents for what residents use Sean Bhardwaj: For Cimi, it's a modest bump on people who use city services while they're in town. For Guadalupe, the money is small enough that the real question is whether 12% is going to put off any of the hotels they're hoping for. If you want to say on this, James, who do you talk to? James Joyce III: In both cities, that's the city council, which decides how the money gets spent when it writes the budget. Sean Bhardwaj: And that covers the hotel taxes. Now let's talk about the measures relating to schools, which brings us back to property taxes. Three school districts and a community college are asking voters for almost 500 million in bonds between them. Las Virginis, which straddles the county line with LA, is asking to keep a parcel tax it already has. And they're asking while the number of kids in the region schools is falling. James, what's driving that? James Joyce III: Well, Ventura Unified isn't on the ballot, but it shows what's happening. The district says new enrollment keeps dropping by about 300 students a year. It points to a falling birth rate in Ventura County and a median age that keeps going up. Cal Lutheran's forecasters say high home prices are pushing people under 40 out of the county. And on October thirteenth, Ventura Unified's school board adopted a committee's report ranking which schools to consider closing. Six of them were elementary schools. And OHI went through this kind of a challenge first. Its school district had lost almost half its students since 2000. Then it approved a draft plan to close two schools. So for me, this offers some context for the districts that are making the ask to their voters to approve bonds this ballot. Sean Bhardwaj: And you can see those challenges in these districts as well. Santa Paula Unified's enrollment is down about 11% in four years. And the Santa Yenez Valley's High School is down about 15%. Rios near Oxnard has held steady. And Ventura Unified's Closure FAQ ties closures to bonds. The sooner the district knows which schools stay open, the sooner its own 2022 bond money goes to the right ones. For anyone who's wondered why their school district keeps asking for more money, how does paying for a school building work, James? James Joyce III: So the state usually pays about half of a building for a new school and a bit more for renovations. The district raises the rest. And that usually means they've got to run a local bond. A school bond needs 55% of the vote to pass. State law also caps how much one elections bond can add to your tax rate. That's one reason districts continue to come back in installments. Sean Bhardwaj: Santa Paula's Measure C is $48.6 million in bonds. That's about $28 a year for every $100,000 of assessed value. The high school's gym burned in 2022. The gym, a community pool, and a performing arts building are at the top of the board's list of projects. Architects put those three at about $73 million. Insurance on the Burn Gym covers more than $22 million of that, and Measure C covers almost all the rest. This is the third time since March of twenty twenty four that Santa Paula has put a high school bond on the ballot. Last time, the high school's measure got fifty three percent of the vote, and since it needed fifty five percent, it didn't pass. James Joyce III: a question I have for this though is does any of that funding go to the elementary schools? Sean Bhardwaj: Not under the board's resolution. The ballot question lists classrooms and restrooms, but the board has limited the money to the high school. James Joyce III: Santa Paula's money stays at the high school. Okay. In the El Rio area near Oxnard, it's the elementary schools. Rio's Measure B is the biggest ask for a school district on any Ventura County ballot. It's at $78 million. Its focus is Rio Plaza and Rio Real Elementary Schools, both built in the nineteen fifties. The district says some of the campuses are the same way as they were built over fifty years ago. The ballot question calls the goal, facility equity at all schools. Sean Bhardwaj: Up north, Alan Hancock College's Measure H asks for 290 million. The college says it hasn't passed a bond in 20 years. It would pay for classrooms, labs, and career training space, and space for four year degrees you could finish locally. Cal Poly's first one in business was set to start on Hancock's Santa Maria campus this fall. Measure H comes out to about nineteen dollars per hundred thousand of assessed value. The college puts that at about seventy dollars a year for a typical home. James Joyce III: And if you live in the San Inez Valley, you pay for two of these. Hancock's College District takes in the Valley, and so does the Valley's own high school district. The high school district's Measure D asked for $80 million. Its campus was built in 1937. The bond would would replace about two dozen portable classrooms. And build career labs for welding, auto repair, and medical careers. Sean Bhardwaj: And Los Virgines measure LV is one school measure that can pay teachers. It renews a $98 parcel tax, which is a flat charge on each property for 12 more years. The district says the money goes to teachers, class sizes, and programs like science and the arts. That's all five. James taken together. Do these do what they say on the box or is there something sneaky inside? James Joyce III: Packaging these up, these are our property requests from schools, I'd give that an eight. each one says what it builds, and the parcel tax says no increase. The list run wide, so the district's own project list is where you see what the money buys. Sean, what do you think for a box score on this? Sean Bhardwaj: The headline items, like you said, are what they build, and the fine print is in each district's project list. Is anyone organized against any of these? James Joyce III: Not that we could find, and we couldn't find campaign money on either side of any of them. Hancock's board voted unanimously to put its measure on the ballot. In the San Inez Valley, a high school board member called the district's bond probably the most important thing this board will ever do. At that board's June meeting, a resident pointed out that people are still paying for the district's 2016 bond. Sean, if you're hiring in Santa Maria or Lompo, What does the college's measure do for you? Sean Bhardwaj: For businesses, Hancock's is the workforce measure. It builds space for nursing, welding, machining, and the trades. The college says more than 40% of local high school graduates rely on it. And Santa Maria is short on four-year degrees. About 16% of its adults have a bachelor's degree. Across Santa Barbara County, it's about 37%. Cal Poly is about 45 miles from Santa Maria, and Cal State Channel Islands is more than 100. My read is a degree that people can finish without moving away is how you grow the local workforce for your employers. And every one of these is a property tax on business property too. And in the Santa Unez Valley, a business that owns its building pays both the college's bond and the high schools. James Joyce III: So let's say your Valley home is assessed at $500,000, half a million dollars. If both the college's bond and the high school's bond pass, together, they'd add about $200 a year on your tax. Sean Bhardwaj: These bonds do run a long time. The Santa Inez School District expects its last payment around 2060. That's a whole generation of tax bills. For employers, the people leaving the area are the workforce. Cal Lutheran's forecasters say they mostly earn $50,000 to $150,000 a year. So is a local bond, one district at a time, a good way to pay for the school buildings and resources the state only pays partially for? James Joyce III: Sean, we're just stacking up potential topics for future episodes, huh? It's the system we have and it puts the call with the people whose kids use the buildings. What I'd want from every district now is an enrollment projection next to the project list, similar to the way Ventura Unified's closure committee. Projected each school's use. But one district at a time means each one asks on its own clock. Sean Bhardwaj: I think it strikes a balance, local buy-in plus a way to raise what the state won't cover. I'm with you on the enrollment projections, and I tie them also to how long each building will last so we can see how full it will be over its lifetime. And I'd also want to see when each project breaks ground and opens so we know when that money goes to work and starts paying back. James Joyce III: A yes on any of the four bonds lets the district sell bonds up to the amount on the ballot, repaid by a property tax while they're outstanding. A yes on Las Virginus's LV keeps its ninety-eight dollar parcel tax for twelve more years. A no, the bonds aren't sold. And Las Virgines' current tax ends in twenty twenty eight. Sean Bhardwaj: Who keeps an eye on the money if these pass? James Joyce III: Each district's Citizens Oversight Committee, Santa Paula's reviews the spending every other month and reports publicly. Sean Bhardwaj: And if any of these measures come up short. James Joyce III: The school board decides whether to try again, and Santa Paula's has already tried twice. That's the board to talk to. Sean Bhardwaj: Okay, that covers the measures that touch the schools. James Joyce III: Here's the rest of the notable local measures, the ones that didn't fall into one of the other groups. Guadalupe's Measure G turns the city's cannabis fee into a tax, and the idea came from a cannabis business. The owner of Root 1, the city's only dispensary, asked the council for this tax. Sean Bhardwaj: Okay, that's a strange one. Why would a business ask to be taxed? James Joyce III: When Root One opened, it agreed to pay the city a fee on its sales, since Guadalupe has no cannabis tax. Its owner told the council the fee really hits our bottom line especially hard. He also said federal rules keep state legal cannabis retailers from deducting regular business expenses on their federal taxes. So they're already being taxed under a system that denies the deductions most businesses depend on. The argument for the measure says a tax is fairer than the fee and gives businesses greater flexibility in marketing and in pricing. Sean Bhardwaj: So explaining this from a business lens to the folks that might not be as aware, a business can deduct taxes and certain expenses from its income statement, and that affects how much tax it has to pay to the federal and state governments. It seems like there is a bit of a gap in terms of what a cannabis business that's state legal can do. And that's why they want to go the tax route and not the fee route. so the expenses are going to be deductible from their federal tax return. James Joyce III: The way I read it, a tax covers every cannabis business in town the same way instead of one deal at a time. And the council can lower the rate as well as raise it. The tax could go as high as 8% of a retailer's sales. City staff expect to recommend 6%. That's what Root One's fee was before the council cut it to four percent for a year this past spring. Sean Bhardwaj: What I like about this is it really shows a dialogue between the city council and at least a business or a sector in its community. Because at the end of the day, the dollars coming into the city should be the same or maybe even more. But by changing how those are classified, it helps a business work that expense into their run rate in a different way. And that could make their business more viable and help them grow. Which is really interesting because you would think normally if it's the same amount of money exchanging hands that it's not gonna make a difference, but there's a lot more going on under the hood, which means there's more opportunities to collaborate and find win-win situations. Moving on to Isla Vista, their community service district has two measures. First, Isla Vista's measure E is a utility tax of 6% on trash, water, electricity, and sewer service. Gas would be taxed at 7%. It raises about $1.2 million a year for housing services, public safety, transit, and public spaces. And it allows exemptions for low-income residents. Measure F in Isla Vista sets the district's spending limit at $3.5 million a year. That's the local version of the GAN limit we talked about on props 2 and 41. Under the state constitution, a district's voters can set that limit, and the change lasts for four years at most. James Joyce III: One last thread to tie. Back to Prop 43 from our third episode. Most of the city taxes in this episode need just a simple majority because a council put a general tax on the ballot. Where prop forty-three comes in is a tax residents put on the ballot themselves, locked to one purpose. Today that needs just over half two. If Prop 43 passes, starting in 2027 that takes a two thirds vote. As far as we found, every one of these fourteen that we talked about today came from a council or a board, not from voters gathering signatures. Sean Bhardwaj: Thanks for calling that back, James. It's a good reminder of how all of these intersect. That covers the local measures, and that's our episode. James Joyce III: Next time we'll be on the other side of election day with all of this decided, and we'll get back to the episode we'd planned as our first episode, which is why policy matters for business and for anyone who cares about their community, especially at the local and regional levels. Sean Bhardwaj: and especially in difficult or turbulent times. So remember to subscribe wherever you're listening so the next one is in your feed right when it comes out. Groundwork is a podcast from Common Ground Policy and Public Affairs. The rest of the week we do this work for businesses and organizations. We tell them what is coming at the local, regional, and state levels, what it means, help them decide what to do about it, and see it through with them. James Joyce III: If you like this, send it to someone you know who needs help filling out their ballot this year. Also, if you have different ideas, questions, or something we didn't get to, tell us in the comments. And if your organization needs support with policy and public affairs, reach out to us at hello at common groundppa.com and let's talk.