By Daniel Langhorne, Special to the Independent
Laguna Beach voters will head to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of Measure P, a one percent sales tax hike billed by city hall leaders as a necessary step to put dangerous utility lines underground, and by opponents as a money grab that will benefit a few residents.
The sales tax increase would bring Laguna Beach’s sales tax to 8.75 percent, compared to 7.75 percent sales taxes in Newport Beach and Dana Point, and would remain for 25 years. In return, Laguna Beach residents would get utility lines undergrounded on Laguna Canyon Road and portions of South Coast Highway, Glenneyre Street, Park Avenue, Virginia Way, San Joaquin Street, and other local streets.
Jennifer Welsh Zeiter, a founding member of Stop Taxing Our Property campaign, which is opposed to the sales tax increase, is frustrated that city leaders have characterized Measure P as necessary to protect public safety. She says the fact that Laguna Beach Fire Chief Michael Garcia and Police Chief Laura Farinella publicly endorsed the initiative gives an unfair advantage to its supporters because city employees typically remain impartial in political campaigns.
“Measure P is a disingenuous sales tax increase,” Welsh Zeiter said. “Laguna Beach should live within our means, and those neighborhoods who wish to underground their utilities should pay for it on their own and not on the backs of those who have already paid.”
One of the ballot measure’s deficiencies is that it prohibits sales tax proceeds from being used on existing employees, pensions, unfunded pension liability, or additional facilities but doesn’t rule out the possibility of funding the salaries and pensions future employees, Welsh Zeiter said.
Among the other fire safety expenses the sales tax revenues could be spent on, are the maintenance of open space vegetation to protect homes, implementation of new technologies for fire detection and firefighting, drones for surveying and firefighting efforts, and improving emergency vehicle access to neighborhoods that are challenging to reach.
Tom Gibbs, co-chair of the Yes on Measure P committee, said his group is confident that voters will pass the sales tax measure because they want to keep Laguna Beach safe from wildfires.
“The biggest misconception being spread by the opposition is over funding,” Gibbs said. “We want to make sure voters understand that Measure P is also the most fiscally responsible way to do this critically important work.”
Gibbs expects that future visitors of Laguna Beach will pay their fair share through the increased sales tax to make sure evacuation routes stay open during a wildfire, flood, or other natural disasters.
Supporters of the measure, which include the Orange County Firefighters Association, say utility lines can fall during high winds or an earthquake and block vital ingress for first responders and egress for evacuating residents.
Laguna Beach is already spending $2.5 million from existing city revenues to pay for undergrounding utilities, but this is expected to only cover about a third of the cost needed to complete the construction. The city’s previous attempts to coax Southern California Edison into paying for up to half of the project’s costs were fruitless.
In the wake of record-setting wildfires that devastated California earlier year, Southern California Edison announced that it could turn off utility lines during high winds to prevent fires from starting. Underground utility lines would help improve the reliability of the grid that Laguna Beach residents count on.
Through public records requests, Welsh Zeiter said she learned that city has already lined up the attorneys and underwriters that it needs to issue a sales-tax backed bond to pay for the construction.
“It tells me that if this passes, they’re going to hit the ground running,” she said. “They can approve it as soon as the first [council] meeting after this bond passes.”
