South Lake Tahoe City Council candidates answer budget questions

There are eleven people vying for a spot on the city council in South Lake Tahoe. With only three open spots, it is not easy to narrow down the choices.

South Tahoe Now reached out to all 11 candidates and received replies on all questions from just seven of them. Each day this week their answers will be posted. It will be different this election because of the crowded field and all answers to question number one will be posted on Monday, question two answers on Tuesday, and so on. The order will rotate each day. (View answers to question #1 here, and question #2 here, and question #3 here.)

Question #4: What was the City's budget this year? What would you like to see changed, if anything, and where would the money come from? Any other input?

Joby Cefalu - The City revenue for 21/22 was 56.4 million including Measure S revenue generated. The 22/23 revenue is 56.9 million dollars, including Measure S funds. A variance of $1.4 million all related to Measure S. From a budgetary standpoint, 60% was funded from both TOT and sales tax generated from tourism. Each year the budget process is started in August, adopted in August, and takes effect in October. Each year the City looks at mid-year budgeting in March to be sure all is in alignment. 70 percent of the actual budget is spent on salaries and benefits. With that said, the Council and all of its members need to constantly look at changes and the ability to sustainably fund those changes. Outside of further taxing our local population in these difficult times, I will be looking at and analyzing all potential funding sources in order to maintain realistic and sustainable funding sources.

Kevin Brunner - The total Budget for 2022-23 starting October 1, 2022 is about $121 Million. The top two revenues are property taxes and TOT. The top 2 expenditures are Police and Fire. 
I’d like to see some effort put forth in creating more housing by acquiring abandoned properties and or renovating existing properties to make housing available faster. I believe we should be more aggressive in seeking grant opportunities both at the State and Federal level, as well as partnering with larger non-profit organizations to fund these ideas. For example, I’d love to see a partnership between the city and Habitat for Humanity to create not just homes but make them energy efficient and use solar and other technologies.

David Jinkens - The total FY 2022 budget appropriations are $114.2 million, with general fund appropriations totaling $54.4 million, including Measure S Sales Tax general fund appropriations of $6.2 million. I am the only candidate for city council who has presented over 35 balanced city budgets in my career. City budgets are the product of goals set by the city council. I learned a long time ago that if everything is important to the city, nothing is important. Limited city monies have to be directed to the things that are the highest priority. Once the City Council has determined its highest priorities, the City Manager and staff then can allocate funding within the proposed budget to these priorities and present the prioritized budget to the city council for public review and adoption. We cannot fund every whim and desire. We must listen to what the community tells us is important and then budget accordingly. We have competent management and staff who can allocate funds in the budget to meet the highest priorities set in advance by the City Council.

Nicole Ramirez Thomas - The City’s amended budget for 2021-2022 was $134,044,943 dollars and the recently adopted budget for the City (budget year 2022-2023) is $121,086,073. Dedicated funding sources, such as Measure S and Measure P, have been successful in funding roads, public safety infrastructure, and recreational facilities. More of these types of focused measures would be good for additional needs in the community. Both of these required tax increases but there are other possible funding sources to explore.

Scott Robbins - The total city budget for 2022-23 is $136M on projected revenue of approximately $121M. The largest expenditure line items are the police and fire departments totaling approximately $20M.

We need to dramatically increase our investments in affordable workforce housing, increase firefighter pay relative to Tahoe’s cost of living, massively increase the pace of road repaving, and eliminate the sales tax hikes that hurt locals.

We can fund these needs by raising the TOT tax, developing a vacancy tax on empty second homes as was done in Oakland and Vancouver, and by cutting unnecessary spending that doesn’t align to the priorities we’ve publicly set.

Twice in the last two years, the city has pushed sales tax hikes that hurt locals. These sales tax hikes should be reversed, and the tax burden shifted from locals to tourists and vacation houses. We should increase the tourism tax to 16% city-wide, and develop a new vacant second home tax, similar to the ones in Oakland and Vancouver. A vacancy tax like Oakland’s could raise revenues on the order of $30M, without hurting locals and simultaneously provide a strong incentive for second homes to be sold or rented. Vancouver's vacancy tax resulted in 30% of their vacant homes being made available for local housing.

The city continuously wastes money on things big and small. We spend over half a million dollars annually to subsidize the 1200 private jets that fly into our airport every year. We spend hundreds of thousands more on unnecessary consultants, and thousands on unnecessary travel. We need to dramatically raise airport jet fees and transform the airport from annual money sink, to an annual revenue generator. We need to exercise real discipline in our spending decisions - every time money is wasted, even when it’s relatively small, it erodes trust in local government to tax and spend responsibly.

Tamara Wallace - The 2021/22 Amended Budget is $49,982,515 (Includes changes at mid-year and projections for the last two months of revenue and expenses). he 2022/23 Projected Budget is $ 50,885,757.

The only changes I would like to see aren’t necessarily in the budget itself, but in the way we look at increasing revenue. I have never believed that we could tax our way to prosperity. That being said, we do need to increase revenues in order to keep up with rising costs (inflation, pensions, construction, deferred maintenance, etc.). I would like us (the council, staff and community) to look at alternatives raising taxes that could help cover these costs.

I already have a few ideas myself.

Chantelle Schenning - The City's budget for FY 2022-2023 is $121M in Revenue. Almost half of this revenue is driven by the General Fund with major contributors being sales tax, property tax, and transient occupancy tax (TOT). So far, I am impressed by the innovative approaches to reduce costs over the long term. For example, an effort to purchase the City's own equipment to repair roadways instead of outsourcing at higher costs. These are strategic, thoughtful ways to be most effective with taxpayer dollars. As a City Council member, I would do my part to influence and support these types of decisions. I also believe there's always room for improvement. For 2022-2023, the Fire budget appears to only have increased by 41k. I am concerned that we are not allocating enough to our Fire budget in order to retain our firefighters and enable them to afford housing in our city. Additionally, TOT revenue is volatile. I'd like to see proposals on how to stabilize TOT, ways to be smarter on expenses, and avenues to increase revenue for City priorities without additional taxes on residents.

Lastly, other candidates and incumbents of the city council have subscribed to an approach of "throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks." I strongly disagree with that approach because it is inefficient and wastes taxpayer dollars while people are counting on us to help solve challenges. When leading a city, we should have more rigor, be strategic, and make data-informed decisions that have the most impact. You can expect that from me!

Here are the websites and contact information for each of the eight candidates who answered the questions above (in alphabetical order):

Kevin Brunner - mrbrunner1212.wixsite.com/kevinbrunner4sltcity, kevinbrunner1991@gmail.com
Joby Cefalu - voteforjoby.com, jobycef@gmail.com
David Jinkens - www.david4slt.com, djinkens4council2022@gmail.com
Nicole Ramirez Thomas - nicoleforcouncil.com, nicole@nicoleforcouncil.com
Scott Robbins - www.scottforslt.com, scott@scottforslt.com
Chantelle Schenning - chantelle4citycouncil.com, chantelle4citycouncil@gmail.com
Tamara Wallace - www.facebook.com/wallace4sltcitycouncil/, wallace4sltcitycouncil@gmail.com