Fail: 791 / 38.23% Yes votes ...... 1,278 / 61.77% No votes

See Also: Index of all Measures

Official Sources of Information

• Official Election Web Site
• Full Text

The utility user tax is a tax upon users of utility services. The tax would be established at a rate of 4.9% of the charges for the utility services mentioned above. The taxes would be collected on utility bills by the provider of the utility service and remitted to the City. The tax rate would be increased each year commencing January 1, 2016, by the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the prior twelve month period. The Ordinance would allow the City Council to reduce the tax rate, but not increase the tax above the CPI or impose a new category of tax without further voter approval.

Telecommunications service subject to the tax includes land-line and mobile telephone services, among other telecommunication services. Video services subject to the tax include cable television and satellite television services, among other video services. The definition of each utility service and a description of how the tax would be calculated and collected are more particularly described in the Ordinance.

The tax applies to services provided to locations in the City of Artesia. For telecommunication and video services, the tax applies to the location of the utility customer's telecommunication equipment from which the telecommunication originates or terminates or, if that location is unknown, then the location of the utility customer's "place of primary use" in the City. The "place of primary use" is the street address where a person's use of the telecommunications service primarily occurs, which must be either the residential street address or the primary business street address of the person.

The electricity and gas user taxes would not apply to any person who has been accepted for the California Alternate Rates for Energy ("CARE") program for low income utility customers pursuant to the California Public Utilities Code. Proceeds of the utility user tax would be placed in the City's General Fund and available for any general municipal purposes. The City Council has set a goal, but not a requirement, to use the proceeds for police services, street repairs, park programs and improvements, and Community Center improvements. City staff estimates the utility user tax will raise between $735,000 and $980,000 annually.

A "Yes" vote on Measure Y is a vote in favor of adopting a general purpose utility user tax at a rate of 4.9% for charges made for telecommunications, electricity, gas, water, video, and trash collection utility services to provide City funding for general fund purposes. A "No" vote on Measure Y is a vote not to adopt a general purpose utility user tax. This Measure will be adopted if it is approved by a majority of the voters voting on this Measure.

s/ KEVIN G. ENNIS
City Attorney