Tag Archives: Revenue

Who To Help With Government Covid Handouts?

Posted on by

Resident serving programs like parks, sewer systems and social services win, tourist attractions lose.

  • Sewer infrastructure and recycled water plant 3.6
  • Parks and recreation programs 3.5
  • Nonprofit food banks and social service agencies 3.3
  • Funding for police and other public safety services 3.0
  • “Helping out” restaurants, bars, retail shops 3.0.
  • Arts, music and entertainment and tourism-related businesses 2.7.

Pacific Gove residents are most interested in using nearly $2 million in federal Covid-19 aid the city is getting to fund upgrades to streets, intersections and sidewalks and least interested in using the money for government technology upgrades, according to the results of a survey from 847 people.

The survey asked citizens to rank how they would like the federal taxpayer dollars to be spent on a scale of 1-5. Public infrastructure received the strongest responses and got a 3.7 average rating.

Who To Help With Government Covid Handouts?

100% Pay Raise Plus Full Medical For McAdams?

Posted on by

300 Forest Ave

Doesn’t she already have a full-time job paid for by our taxes? Must need more money to pay her property taxes on the Seaside house she owns/

Isn’t it about time for Jenny McAdams stop self rewarding herself on our dime and do something for all the citizens of Pacific Grove?

McAdams also proposed giving council members medical benefits. If the council OKs the raise and all seven council members enroll in the health plan, it would cost taxpayers about $178,000 per year with increases in future years.

“A family with two working parents and young children often cannot afford to dedicate the time required to serve on council,” Tomlinson told The Pine Cone. “In general, increasing pay will give more citizens the opportunity to serve, and this will increase the candidate pool come election time. This is very good for P.G.”

100% Pay Raise Plus Full Medical For Jenny?

City Reveals It’s Checkbook

Posted on by

Took some searching through the city website schlock but found it. Go here: Pacific Grove / Annual (opengov.com) Then scroll down to Data, where it defaults to Summary Table and finally click Check Register. You’ll have to scroll to the right to get to the good information, and maybe click on a column divider to widen the cells enough to read. But hey, that’s what we get when there’s no schlock.

City councilman Luke Coletti proposed that city hall publish the monthly check register so taxpayers can easily see how much the city spends monthly on things like pension costs, water and power expenses, reimbursement to city employees and many other things.
Coletti, who was elected in November 2020, made a campaign promise to “establish policies and programs that ensure fiscal transparency and public access.” City staffers agreed to publish the information. “It’s a total no-brainer as far as I’m concerned,” he told The Pine Cone about city hall’s release of the check register. “Carmel, as well as many other local jurisdictions and agencies, have been releasing their registers for years. Pacific Grove used to — a long time ago — and I wanted to reestablish the practice,” Coletti said.

City Reveals It’s Checkbook

Kampe Crys Insufficiency Asks STRs To Save The City

Posted on by

Do these businesses in the residential areas have full ADA access like real businesses? What about safety items like fire sprinklers?

Pacific Grove continues to grapple with a revenue shortfall, one that the city’s newly revised short-term rental program is meant to diminish Mayor Bill Kampe said in his State of the City address on Tuesday night.

That’s where the topic of short-term rentals came in with Kampe providing a short history of the city’s program that started in 2011 and was expected to generate $200,000 a year in revenue but now exceeds $1 million in transient occupancy tax. On Feb. 21, the city council passed an ordinance 4-1 that amended the city’s new short-term rental policy adopted in December to include a lottery system, which functions to get the number of STRs down from 290 to 250 and make it so that only 15 percent of housing per block is dedicated to such rentals.

Kampe Crys Insufficiency Asks STRs To Save The City

No P Posse Proselytizes People

Posted on by

Coalition against citywide admissions tax. But that Half Fast Marathon. That thing blocks the streets.

Besides the aquarium, the coalition includes the Big Sur International Marathon and the Friends of the Pacific Grove Public Library, among other area nonprofits.

Proponents of the tax say that a 5 percent fee attached to aquarium admissions, for example, is only fair because of the city’s need to pay for the repair and maintenance of the city’s infrastructure, including city roads, sidewalks, paths and the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail.

No P Posse Proselytizes People

Monterey Now Eyeing Aquarium For More Rent

Posted on by

P.G. not the only town looking under rocks in the tide pools for treasures.

Giant Salmon fish

On Tuesday night, the Monterey City Council voted 3-2 to hire an appraiser to evaluate the land.

Several residents spoke against the appraisal, asking why the city wants to spend $31,000 of the tideland fund, but Monterey City Manager Mike McCarthy says the lease agreement allows the city to perform rent review.

“Our lease with the aquarium for the tidelands requires a review on the rent,” McCarthy said.

One dollar per year is all the State Lands Commission wanted when the aquarium first asked to build on the tidelands in 1981.

Monterey Now Eyeing Aquarium For More Rent

City Proposing A 140% Tax Hike

Posted on by

Increasing business tax as other sources for more money fail.

The proposed increase would take the current rate from $0.001 per dollar of gross receipts to $0.0024.

If passed, the initiative would also remove the current cap.

Right now, if a business makes more than $3 million in gross receipts, they only pay $3,000 in business license tax because that is the current cap.

City Manager Ben Harvey said there are about 20 businesses in Pacific Grove affected by the cap.

The city has been exploring ways to increase revenue for months and this is one of the ideas the council thinks could work.

City Proposing A 140% Tax Hike

Ticket Taxes, That’s the Ticket

Posted on by

Admission taxes and business taxes, those will save us.

The citywide admissions tax would apply to ticket sales for all attractions, including movies, sporting and special events, tours, concerts and the aquarium. Approximately 20 percent of the aquarium is located under Pacific Grove’s jurisdiction.

The other tax in question on Wednesday will be the city’s business tax license. The current cap for a business license is $3,000 with the minimum cost set at $15.

Options proposed to the city, to be considered separately or in combination, include removing the $3,000 maximum tax cap, retaining the cap and increasing the tax rate, or removing the cap, streamlining the process by eliminating the separate current tax/process method and applying a tax rate by business type.

Ticket Taxes, That’s the Ticket

 

Business Tax Hike In The Works

Posted on by

OK if they offer incentives that can reduce the tax, like being open 7 days a week and at least 10 hours per day. Tax property owners for empty storefronts.

The current cap for a business license is $3,000 while the minimum cost is $15. City Manager Ben Harvey said that both figures should be a lot higher.

“Both need to be reviewed and raised,” said Harvey. “We will bring back different scenarios to the council and what each one would potentially yield to the city.”

Business Tax Hike In The Works