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For the first time in the city’s history, voters in San Ramon are set to decide on a ballot measure this November that would increase sales tax following months of discussions on the topic and amid a growing budget crisis and cuts to city services in recent months.
The San Ramon City Council voted unanimously at their regular meeting on July 23 to approve a resolution placing a 1% sales tax increase for 10 years on the ballot in this year’s general election.
The move came following an initial discussion on the potential of passing a tax measure and how it would affect the city’s financial outlook at the June 25 council meeting, during which councilmembers directed staff to pursue a measure that was outlined and advocated for by a recently formed citizens group – specifically, the 1% increase with a 10-year sunset and a mechanism for citizen oversight.
That group, now officially called “Residents for San Ramon”, was also present at the council meeting, expressing support for the measure as it was proposed that evening and promising to lead the campaign for the measure ahead of November’s election.
Out of the five public comments, three were from members of Residents for San Ramon and two were from other residents critical of the move that would raise the sales tax citywide to 9.75% if approved, including former mayor Greg Carr.
“I do not think taking a single percent this year is worth it,” Carr said. “It will come back to haunt us. What’s going to happen in a year or two is people are going to find we still don’t have enough money because we haven’t really solved how did we get $17 million all of a sudden, seemingly overnight, and we haven’t really gone structurally.”
“When I say structurally, I’m not talking about unfilled positions,” he continued. “I’m talking about reorganization. I’m talking about riffs, talking about salary freezes, salary cuts, whatever it takes.”
With the council having expressed support for the measure at previous meetings, Carr said that moving forward with the election, he would like to see Residents for San Ramon take on the task of formulating the arguments for the measure, and volunteered to draft a counter argument himself.
Kyle Levy was among the members of Residents for San Ramon who voiced support for the measure at that night’s meeting.
“San Ramon is a terrific place to live,” Levy said. “I feel very fortunate that I’m able to do so, and I know that most residents of San Ramon feel exactly the same way. I felt strongly enough about the importance of this to seek out those others that felt the same way and to do whatever I could to help this effort.”
Levy said that the budget crisis facing the city was caused by external forces, and lauded the council and staff for their fiscal responsibility and careful budgeting.
“The fact is, even with that care San Ramon has run into a perfect storm of high inflation, restrictive legacy agreements, growing population, a limited retail footprint – all kinds of factors which have brought us to this situation that none of us wanted to see,” Levy said.
Robert Bickel, another member of Residents for San Ramon, said that the group had come to the decision to advocate for a sales tax after careful analysis of the city’s finances and spending and comparisons with neighboring communities.
“I consider myself to be fiscally conservative, and I think that perspective is shared by other members of our committee,” Bickel said. “As such, the bar was set very high for us to consider getting involved in this effort to support an increase in the sales tax.”
He added that the group’s analysis had led to several conclusions.
“No. 1, city staff are highly efficient, providing services with less staff and money compared to neighboring towns and cities,” Bickel said. “No. 2, city staff have explored every possible way to increase revenue and decrease spending without compromising services and public safety.”
“No. 3, city staff operate with a level of openness and transparency that would make any fortune 500 company blush, and I know that from experience,” he continued. “No. 4, the city faces an untenable financial situation due to factors outside of its control, such as small sales tax base, limited new revenue sources and rising costs.”
Bickel added that he did not want to see additional cuts to the city’s budget like the $8.1 million that was approved by the council during the budgeting process for the current fiscal year.
“Unless the situation is stabilized, the likelihood of death by a thousand cuts may be the norm going forward,” Bickel said.
The group’s communications lead, Robert Maser, said that it was his first time getting so heavily involved in the city’s affairs after a lifetime of living in San Ramon.
“I’ve never been involved in an initiative like this that’s going on the ballot, even though I’ve been in this city, raised our family here, but I’m now seeing what the potential budget deficits could be coming up – as much as $22 million in 2028, 2029 – and without some sort of significant revenue opportunity the city has other than a sales tax measure,” Maser said.
District 2 Councilmember Mark Armstrong emphasized that the city had taken all possible other measures to balance the budget, including budget cuts approved earlier in the year and an increase in user fees, but that those steps would not be sufficient to contend with the shortfall currently facing the city.
“We’ve listened to the thoughtful input from all our residents about what they think is important and how they think we ought to go about fixing the issue, and I think this revenue measure will help us get there,” Armstrong said. “I think even with it, we may not be able to immediately restore all the cuts that we already made, but I think we’ll be in a better position to get there and at least provide the level of services that our residents have come to expect.”
He added that a benefit of the tax measure would be that any new revenue it generates would go entirely into the city’s coffers, as well as the ability to generate revenue from all shoppers in the city, not just residents.
Vice Mayor Scott Perkins noted that this was the first time in the city’s history that officials were asking for residents to approve an increase in taxes.
“I think that says a lot about the quality of the staff and the council in managing the revenues we do have. in spite of the state and other mandates that we keep getting that put pressure on us from all sides,” Perkins said. “But yet we still have a city that people want to live in. Other cities were having trouble selling their homes, but you go down here to City Village and they can’t build them fast enough.”
District 3 Councilmember Sridhar Verose pointed to the transparency and community engagement in the budgeting process so far as signs of a potentially brighter financial future for the city.
“The beauty of this process is the transparency,” Verose said. “From day one we made sure that we communicated what’s happening through social media, through all available media, and also we reached out to our residents to make sure we understand what they are looking for to continue the quality of services that they are looking for.”
District 4 Councilmember Marisol Rubio echoed the sentiments of her fellow councilmembers and voiced appreciation for residents engaging in that evening’s discussion and talks over the past year as the city navigated its current financial crisis.
“It’s not every day that we have residents step forward to want to really be part of the city and support the city in meeting its goals and being successful in doing that,” Rubio said. “We are very fortunate to have a community that cares so deeply about its city.”
Outgoing Mayor Dave Hudson noted that the city had tried cutting some services earlier in his tenure at the dais, and said that it was not a process he would like to see repeated.
“They like what we’re doing here,” Hudson said. “They like the parks maintained the way they are. The last time we went through a problem like this they were trying to cut back to far less maintenance and it was not a good period in our lives. I think we’re on the right track here.”
Perkins motioned to adopt the resolution placing the sales tax measure on the Nov. 5 ballot citywide, which was seconded by Verose and approved unanimously by the council.
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