AnonymousSource: Goleta Chamber of Commerce
Chambers of Commerce from across Santa Barbara County are coming together to voice their support for the restart of ExxonMobil’s Santa Ynez Unit (SYU). The newly-formed Santa Barbara County Chamber Coalition commissioned a report from the California Economic Forecast into the economic and fiscal impacts of restoring SYU’s interim and full oil production in Santa Barbara County.
This important facility has been idle since May 2015. Until a pipeline alternative becomes available, ExxonMobil is pursuing a temporary trucking permit to transport crude oil to market – allowing for a phased restart of SYU. The interim trucking proposal would result in the creation of hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in new income and spending.
Restarting SYU would create a meaningful increase in funding to Santa Barbara County public safety, fire protection, local government services and the local K-14 public school system. Key findings of the report tie the vital funding missing from Santa Barbara County to the shutdown of SYU.
“The findings from this study show that a lot is at stake, not only for the employees and their families but for our County,” said Kristen Miller, President and CEO of the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce. “The revenues generated by the SYU facility go to fund our local schools, our police, firefighters and more. We simply can’t wait any longer, we must restart SYU now.”
“The Northern County K-14 school system, including Allan Hancock Community College, stands to benefit from these additional revenues. It’s time to get people back to work and to get these revenues flowing again,” said Etta Waterfield, Santa Maria City councilmember.
“Public Safety is a large part of the County’s General Fund. When the General Fund takes a hit, so does public safety. Everyone is feeling the crunch from the lack of staffing that we have. We want to be better staffed to serve the County and restarting SYU is a great way to do it,” said Neil Gowing, President, Santa Barbara County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association.
Other Key Findings:
- The SYU restart adds 218 direct jobs with average salaries that are 27% higher than the average County resident salary
- Restarting SYU will provide millions in additional annual revenues to the Santa Barbara County General Fund, K-14 schools including Allan Hancock Community College and to Santa Barbara County Fire
- The project will provide $1.07 million per year that will help the County Fire Department increase staffing and training, in addition to covering their equipment needs
- The Lompoc Valley Medical Center will receive critical funding to continue providing services to the overwhelmingly low-income population they serve – the median household income in Lompoc is 42% less than the median County household in come
- ExxonMobil will invest more than $40 million per year in the Santa Barbara County economy to maintain SYU operations
At a Glance:
|
Property Tax Recipients of the Project – Santa Barbara County (Pg. 33) |
|
|
|
Annual Amount |
|
SB County General Fund |
1,798,739 |
|
SB County Fire Protection |
1,078,345 |
|
Misc. County (Flood, Water, Vector, Cemetery) |
181,428 |
|
Lompoc Hospital District |
71,300 |
|
Vista Del Mar School District |
693,600 |
|
Santa Ynez Valley High School |
734,892 |
|
Santa Ynez River Water CD |
11,732 |
|
5 Santa Barbara County schools* |
1,248,476 |
|
Allan Hancock Comm College |
476,600 |
|
County School Service Fund |
329,556 |
|
Education Rev Aug Fund |
954,333 |
|
Total |
$7,579,000 |
|
|
|
|
Bonds |
|
|
Allan Hancock CC |
139,406 |
|
Santa Ynez Valley High School |
89,315 |
|
Lompoc Hospital |
259,146 |
|
Lompoc Unified |
275,001 |
|
Total Tax |
$8,341,868 |
|
|
|
*Santa Maria Jt HS Dist, Lompoc Unified, Blochman Union, Cuyama Elementary & Cuyama HS
Click here for the full Economic Impact Report: https://goletachamber.com/wp-
About the Santa Barbara County Chamber Coalition: The Santa Barbara County Chamber Coalition was formed to support bringing back jobs and economic vitality to Santa Barbara County through a phased restart of the Santa Ynez Unit. The coalition consists of the Goleta Chamber of Commerce, Buellton Chamber of Commerce, Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce, Solvang Chamber of Commerce and Lompoc Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber of Commerce is protecting who? And they are a non-profit in terms of tax status?
So a temporary tanker truck increase is a problem, but the increase in cars every year is not?
A truck full of liquid is way heavier than a car. They accelerate damage to roads and bridges.
Yes. But trucking companies pay huge taxes for that. It is temporary and I just meant car traffic is increasing and nothing is being done to alleviate it.
Added likely impacts: bad air, dangerous roads, contaminated water, etc. etc. The local chambers should lose all city funding. I for one do not want my tax dollars going to an organization that puts corporate greed before the health of my children and my grandchildren. Oil shills, bring it on.
There was an “Oil Train” a few yrs ago that was going on our rail system- People screamed panic about rail cars specifically designed for mass oil transport might spill…LOL! Well, here is your ridiculous replacement…100’s of 6,000 gallon diesel semi trucks clogging 101 and going over extremely dangerous areas like the “3 Bridges” near Buellton , the Nojoqui Grade and of course the Gaviota Tunnel / Curve… People will die for sure.
Let’s wreck the highways with lots of extra heavy trucks carrying oil. As long as we get those tax dollars paid for by the extra high cost of gasoline here. My god….
RHS, I rather strongly suspect that you personally are quite willing to enjoy the benefits of all those awful businesses. In fact, I suspect that the general level of hypocrisy on this thread is quite high. Whenever I ride the busses in Santa Barbara there seems to be plenty of room for more passengers as the bus slogs forward through heavy automobile traffic. Most of these cars carry a driver only and if there are passengers they tend to be too young to drive their own cars.