The Turlock City Council received an annual Measure A report earlier this month, letting the public know exactly where the City is spending the sales tax measure approved by voters in 2020.
Patrick Shields, a member of the Measure A Citizen Oversight Committee, presented the annual report to the City Council at their July 11 meeting.
This ¾ city sales tax was estimated to provide $11 million in revenue annually to fund City of Turlock services by increasing the sales tax from 7.875 percent to 8.625 percent. This past fiscal year, Measure A brought in $15,166,113 to city coffers.
There were eight areas listed in the Measure A ordinance — “protect Turlock’s long-term financial stability, maintain and restore public safety services, rapid 911 emergency and medical response, fire protection, fix streets and potholes, support local businesses, address challenges with homelessness and vagrancy and protect Turlock’s ability to respond to emergencies and natural disasters.”
In 2021, the Council split the Measure A funds into two separate accounts - one for road repairs and maintenance and the other for everything else.
For fiscal year 2021-22, $7,583,056 went to roads projects.
Over $1.5 million was transferred to the General Fund Reserve.
The majority of other funds were spent on public safety — $327,674 for fire salaries and benefits and $325,406 for police salaries and benefits.
Another $250,000 was spent on General Plan implementation and growth.
Other expenses for 2021-22 included: Contract services for mental wellbeing for city staff ($91,099), fire department feasibility study ($76,071), training for fire prevention inspector ($40,000), public facilities department salaries and benefits ($29,173), training for police department’s special operations ($25,000), and parks and recreation department salaries and benefits ($21,002).
Following the report presentation to the City Council, Mayor Amy Bublak asked Shields if the Citizen Oversight Committee had any questions or concerns about the way the Council has been spending Measure A funds.
“Both of the meetings I’ve been a part of, the discussion has been ‘how do we show the community actually even more that these funds are being used appropriately?’…When we start to talk about this in the community to our coworkers, family members this report…is very beneficial. It’s easy to see where the money is going, what it’s funding. What our biggest discussion has been is how do we get that out to the public even more?” said Shields, a recently added member to the Measure A Citizen Oversight Committee.
