Pinole Ranks Middle for Property Tax Revenue Sharing

With the ongoing slump in property values, Pinole continues to see property tax receipts below the higher levels of three or four years ago. Based on economic projections, city officials expect the revenue lag to last for multiple budget cycles. Meanwhile, the declining revenues have resulted in employee layoffs and reductions in funding for some programs and services.

Compared to neighboring cities, it could be better, or it could be worse, in Pinole. Figures provided by the county auditor-controller's office show that  Pinole receives 8.72 percent of the city-county split of property tax revenues, which vary from city to city. El Cerrito receives 18.7 percent of the property tax money collected there, and Martinez gets 14.9 percent.

Still, Pinole's take is more than than San Pablo, which gets 1.9 percent, and Hercules, which grabs 3.3 percent.

Hercules is taking a novel approach, seeking support for state legislation to increase its cut. Hercules plans to push for at least 7 percent, Hercules City Manager Steve Duran said. Increasing Hercules’ property tax share to 7 percent would add $1 million in annual revenue to the city’s general fund.

“If we had an (additional) million, we wouldn’t have had to lay off three police officers last week and we would have saved a couple of other jobs, too,” Duran said at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Hercules gave layoff notices to three sworn police officers in early March. By April 2012, when the latest round of city employee layoffs take effect, Hercules will have reduced full time, non-police staff by 50 percent since 2010. The number of sworn officers in Hercules will drop from 29 to 20 in April.

Recent staff reductions through layoffs and attrition were an attempt by Hercules to resolve a structural deficit estimated at $1.6 million. The city will work to trim that amount from its 2012-2013 budget, Duran said. It has also introduced revenue-increasing measures, such as the property tax share increase. The city council also voted to place a half-cent sales tax measure on the June election ballot.

The attached May, 2011 document shows the city-county percentages of property tax revenues divided between Contra Costa County and each of its 19 cities.

Should Pinole try to increase the percentage of tax revenue that it shares with Contra Costa County?