City Council Meeting

JC Martinezstaffyou mayor council section 90-2 6 2 of the city code currently provides for a 4% meals tax the proposed ordinance would increase the amount of the meals tax to four and one-half percent 4.5 asset fourth in the city managers recommended FY 27 budget the effective date of this change would be July 1 20 26 the previous meals tax change was from 2% to 4% in 2004 roughly 22 years ago an increase to the meals tax reduces the financial burden on residents as the meals tax can offset the need for higher real estate taxes due to visitors and non-residents paying the tax the half percent proposed increase would generate approximately an additional 1.3 million dollars in meals tax revenues this change would result in a tax increase of approximately a quarter a quarter of a

GOING INTO A LITTLE MORE GRANULAR DETAIL, AGAIN THE FY27 PROPOSED BUDGET. SO IT DID INCLUDE, THE MANAGER DID INCLUDE A RATE INCREASE OF TWO AND A HALF CENTS. SO GOING UP FROM OUR CURRENT RATE OF A DOLLAR ZERO FIVE AND A HALF TO A DOLLAR ZERO EIGHT. IT ALSO DID INCLUDE A MEALS TAX INCREASE AS WAS PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED EARLIER TONIGHT, GOING FROM 4% TO 4.5%. AGAIN, THAT HALF A PERCENT INCREASE EQUATES TO APPROXIMATELY A QUARTER OR 25 CENTS ON A $50 MEAL. AND THEN ON THE EXPENSES, AGAIN, FULLY FUND THE CONTRACT EXPENSE FOR THE SCHOOL TUITION CONTRACT FROM FY26 TO FY27, ABOUT $5 MILLION. THE TWO PLANNED DEBT ISSUANCES AGAIN. AND THEN FOR WORKFORCE INVESTMENTS SPECIFICALLY, A 1% COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT FOR ALL EMPLOYEES, BOTH GENERAL EMPLOYEE AND PUBLIC SAFETY, EFFECTIVE THE BEGINNING OF THE FISCAL YEAR, SO JULY 1, 2026.

Stacy HallI'm certainly not suggesting that we zero out the Renaissance program, but I don't think $100,000 is going to do anything for them. I think it was pretty clear that they needed $200,000 to continue or that they would just fold the program and it would no longer continue. And I personally don't agree with that. It sounds like that is where a large portion of council is headed. I mean, it's a numbers game some days, but that's not my choice. understand that decision if that's what is being proposed here. But I think that's the only other way that you would find your extra $90,000. I personally would be fine with the TOT going up to $11,000 or $12,000. I mean, I feel like we do this to the meals tax.

Anthony AmosAmos the only thing I'll note for TOT and I do concur that while we had one speaker who clearly had some type of interest of that money being allocated a particular way it's still increasing to 9% it's not at 9% currently so I did want to make sure that we just reiterate that already increasing, but we would be increasing the margin more, which is, you know, a similar conversation for what if we did the 1.080 to 1.95, at least from a hotel perspective, which is why I'm more amenable with trying to offset that impact on a particular industry, which I know is part of the reason why a lot of us get frustrated with the meals tax because it focuses on a particular industry. So it's really just trying to mitigate that, which