Butte County supervisors today approved making room for $11 million in future tax revenue in the year’s annual budget.
Measure H — the ballot initiative that would impose a one-cent sales tax in Butte County — is showing success in preliminary election results, securing around 67% of votes.
The measure was put on the ballot because of slumping services throughout the county. Staffing for the sheriff’s office, district attorney’s office, county library and fire department are using limited operational resources due to a lack of funding.
The county’s chief administrative officer, Andy Pickett, gave his report during today’s supervisors’ meeting.
“Measure H was the result of the public wanting a voice in this situation,” Pickett told the board. “They resoundingly said that they wanted to keep and fund these services.”
Pickett said the sales tax begins on April 1 and is expected to generate around $11 million for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Though the revenue isn’t available now, the county can still begin using the extra money to fund things like staffing.
“We can now start adding back some of the positions that were reduced and also to bring the fire department staffing to industry standards,” Pickett said.
Pickett said the county is expecting to fill around 120 positions with the $11 million, with 34 of those being contracted Cal Fire employees.
He also told the board the next step is to address recruitment and retention issues.
One way retention and recruitment has been addressed in recent years was by using sign-on bonuses. The district attorney’s office, for example, offered as much as $30,000 to those hired on. The sheriff’s office also implemented a similar program shortly prior.
Pickett said the new sales tax will be able to address decades of Butte County slowly cutting services to keep afloat financially.
Last month, Pickett said Measure H should address the county’s financial shortcomings.
“For the foreseeable future, this will cover our needs ongoing and because it's a sales tax measure,” Pickett said in October. “It will increase over time relative to sales tax and that should keep up with our growing expenses.”
