A complication for Measure M

Whether Measure M, the county library system’s one-eighth-cent sales tax measure, is bound for victory or defeat next month, the libraries will still have some issues to sort out when it comes to finances.

That’s because there is a statewide cap in place on the amount of sales tax that can be imposed in a given jurisdiction. And Measure M, the Library Improvement Act, contains a provision requiring that the state Legislature raise that cap before money can be collected.

As a result, even if Measure M garners the two-thirds vote it needs to pass, “We won’t be able to collect the tax,” said library commissioner Joanne Sanders, a former Sonoma council member.

At least, not until legislators in Sacramento raise Sonoma County’s sales tax cap “by at least the amount of tax imposed by this ordinance,” as Measure M states in its language.

A curious aspect of the provision is that no part of Sonoma County is so close to the limit that Measure M’s .125 percent hike would have

exceeded it.

California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 7251.1 states that the combined sales tax rate in a county or jurisdiction may not be 2 percent higher than the state tax rate of 7.5 percent – an effective cap of 9.5 percent.

According to the state Board of Equalization, Cotati currently has the highest sales tax rate in Sonoma County at 9.25 percent – still within the bounds of a Measure M tax hike. (By comparison, Sonoma’s sales tax rate is 8.75 percent, as is Santa Rosa’s, Healdsburg’s and Rohnert Park’s. Petaluma’s current sales tax rate is 8.25 percent.)

But as Sonoma County Library system director Brett Lear explained, when the Board of Supervisors put Measure M on the ballot, its members inserted the provision because they also were planning to add another quarter-cent sales tax for road improvements.

That would have potentially increased Cotati’s tax rate to 9.625 percent.

At the time, “They knew that if both passed, they might not collect revenue for one or the other throughout the county,” Lear said.

Supervisors later changed their mind about the quarter-cent tax, putting it off until a future election.

But by then the Library Improvement Act contained the provision requiring state legislators to raise the cap.

Lear said county leaders still intend to get the sales tax cap lifted, adding, “The county Board of Supervisors is actively working with the state Legislature to get that done.”

According to Sanders, “Those wheels started to turn when this tax was being contemplated by the county and the Sonoma County Library Commission. But we ran out of time with the Legislature” during its last session. She and Lear both believed that Sacramento would be successful in raising the cap during the next legislative session.

Lear added that the library system could use its “modest amount of reserves … while we wait for the cap to be lifted.”

He also noted that the 10-year limit on the tax won’t begin until after taxes start to be collected. “If we don’t start getting the money until, say, March of next year, the 10-year clock starts ticking then. … The voters will get 10 years of enhanced library services regardless.”

Measure M would generate an estimated $8 million to $10 million per year over 10 years. It is intended to restore library hours by supplementing the system’s current revenue stream of 22.5 cents per every $1,000 in assessed property tax value per year.

Locally, however, some library branches have their own forms of revenue – and in this regard none in Sonoma County is better off than the Sonoma Valley branch.

That point was driven home again last month after the library branch received an unexpected gift from the estate of Jane Kunde for $700,000.

The money was essentially Kunde’s IRA, Sanders said. A member of the family that owns Kunde Estate Winery and Vineyards in Kenwood, Jane Kunde was well-known as a devoted library volunteer, commissioner and supporter.

Sanders said the latest windfall was “not unprecedented,” and could be spent only on improvements to the Sonoma Valley branch on Napa Street.

“It could be for a special reading area, a reading room, it could be for a special (book) collection, it could be for the building maintenance,” she said.

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