| San Luis Obispo County, CA | June 8, 2010 Election |
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Recovery of the Commercial CoreBy Nancy JohnsonCandidate for Member, City Council; City of Morro Bay |
This information is provided by the candidate | |
The City must generate more revenue to fund City services and to continue as an independent incorporated City. The City's water, sewer system and harbor have their own dedicated revenue sources which comes from users fees ( i.e. your monthly water and sewer bill and in the case of the Harbor Department ground lease payments from businesses on the Westside of the Embarcadero) These Departments are self sustaining and are in pretty good financial shape. The problem is the City's General Fund which pays for Police, Fire, and Park Maintenance and other services. The major sources of revenue for the General Fund are various taxes collected from residents and tourists. With the exception of property taxes these revenue sources have not been growing at the same rate as the wages and benefits of the City employees who provide our services. There are things that can be done to increase tourism revenue, but I am going to leave that for a separate conversation. The area that I feel has the most potential is to look at our commercial core which needs a boost so that we are able to capture more sales tax. The City government is limited in its ability to help individual businesses but, the City can surely create a business friendly environment that will encourage entrepreneurs to locate here. Because of my six years experience on the Planning Commission I have first hand knowledge of how the bureaucracy in our Planning and Building Department works. I feel we need to look comprehensively at the Public services Dept. and how it could be made more efficient. This needs to be done by our City Manager. As a Council member I will support and help her with this direction. Furthermore, if elected I will propose and lobby the other Council Members for their support to seriously consider reducing the planning and building fees for commercial development during this slow economic time. I will work with the commercial property owners in the downtown area, as well as City government, to find incentives that would encourage them to make the type of improvements that would attract and keep tenants who would offer a more "up scale" selection of products or services. Our community needs to capture more of the sales tax revenues by offering more services and encouraging the residents to shop locally so that Morro Bay can remain an independent City. |
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