Elk Grove leaders decide how Measure E’s $21M will be split. What’s the breakdown?
Elk Grove formally agreed to share the $21 million forecast to be raised each year by the city’s 1% Measure E sales tax increase, with the majority of the new funds going to police and fire protection.
Elk Grove City Council heard details of the tax-sharing agreement with the Elk Grove-based Cosumnes Community Services District at its Wednesday meeting and gave City Manager Jason Behrmann the go-ahead to execute the pact. Cosumnes district leaders signed off on the deal May 3 in a 4-0 vote.
Council members will review a spending plan May 24, with its outline of planned projects and how the money will be spent. Final approval is slotted for June 14. The first payments are expected in July.
“We’re providing a path forward — this was five years in the making,” said councilman and former Cosumnes CSD Director Rod Brewer.
Elk Grove and district leaders made sure “that the city of Elk Grove and the Cosumnes Community Services District looked for ways to keep ourselves out of the pit of any sort of recession that may come our way in the next five or 10 years,” Brewer added. “Measure E represents that. It gives us the tools and resources we need to effectively serve Elk Grove.”
Elk Grove would keep 50% of revenue under the Measure E Tax Sharing Agreement; while Cosumnes Community Services District, which provides fire protection, emergency response and parks and recreation services for Elk Grove, keeps 30%.
What that means in annual dollars is sizable — an estimated $11.25 million a year to Elk Grove and $6.75 million yearly to Cosumnes Community Services District.
It’s up to Elk Grove how it divvies up the share, per the agreement, but city documents show that roughly $4.5 million will go toward reducing crime and speeding 911 response; $2.025 million will go to tackle homelessness; another $1.8 million will be allocated each year for street maintenance and $1.575 million to economic development.
The money comes atop the millions of dollars promised by the Wilton Rancheria from its Sky River Casino. The tribe pledged $186 million to Elk Grove and Sacramento County over the next 20 years from the casino to improve public safety and education, roads and other services. The cash would go to fund many of the same services targeted with the new sales tax hike.
Measure E, approved by 54% of voters last November, raised Elk Grove’s then-7.5% sales tax to 8.5%, the rate joining Sacramento and Rancho Cordova’s as Sacramento County’s highest sales tax. Under the measure, the increase provides an estimated $21.2 million yearly for public safety, to address homelessness, support economic development, repair and maintain parks and roads and direct money into programs for the city’s youth.
Two-thirds of Cosumnes’ share will go to fire protection, with the remaining third toward parks and recreation services.
The remaining 20% of yearly revenues from Measure E will be socked away in a reserve fund for future projects and services.
The spending plan follows the list of priorities envisioned when Elk Grove and Cosumnes Community Services District first stumped for Measure E last year; discussed in February community meetings once the ballot measure passed; and by a residents’ oversight panel commissioned once the measure passed.
The sales tax increase went into effect April 1.
