Edhat StaffSource: City of Santa Barbara
The City of Santa Barbara received $1.76 million in transient occupancy tax (TOT) for the month of June 2018, which is 2 percent below June 2017 collections.
June marks the final month in the City’s fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30. Total TOT revenue collected in fiscal year 2018 was approximately $18.8 million, resulting in a 1.5 percent decline for the year. Total TOT revenue fell short of the City’s adopted TOT budget of $19,262,400.
The Transient Occupancy Tax table can be viewed here.
How does the city primarily raise revenues to pay for ever-increading city expenses, mainly personnel costs: tourism tax, retail sales tax, property tax, fees and permits. How does the city increase these revenues: bring in more residents to buy things; bring in more tourists to vacation here; sell increasingly expensive residential properties to new buyers; regulate everything in order to generate more fees and lastly keep offering more increased tax measures to the voters. How about decreasing spending instead? No, this is not on the radar. So it becomes very important to track the following: retail sales taxes, TOT-tourism revenues, property taxes, and permit and license fees, When they say they will find the money, where will find it from?
I don’t understand why they are taxing the transients, they obviously have no money because they live and go to the bathroom on State Street.
The fact that the city NEEDS the TOT to increase every month or they dip into the general fund and take from essential services, is a glaring example of the mismanagement and poor fiscal guidance by our city’s leaders over the last 30 years and especially over the last 8. The TOT is a hard drug and our city and its bloated budgets and staff are addicted. If we dont stem their spending and their reliance on the tourist trade, we’re going to be broke in a few years. Please pay mind folks. Its not a good situation and no one is doing anything about it. Unless you all want more taxes, more fees and higher rents. If that’s the case, just ignore the monster growling in the closet. We need to cut spending and address the severe mismanagement of our city’s funds or we will be insolvent in a decade.
Maybe it’s the change in our weather. It’s not so great pretty often now.
Too many letters to the editors from former visitors complaining about vagrants assaulting them on State Street. Say they will never come back and tell their friends to stay away too. Their warnings have been sounding for years.