Merced Tax Transparency Commission Meeting - August 13, 2025
Merced Tax Transparency Commission Meeting - August 13, 2025
The Tax Transparency Commission met on August 13, 2025, at 6:05 PM in the City Council Chamber. The Commission reviewed and unanimously accepted revenue and expense reports for Measure C (sales tax) and Measure Y (cannabis tax) as of June 30, 2025, and received informational updates on the Safe Streets LED streetlight replacement project and road pavement projects. No public comments were made. The Consent Calendar item (approval of May 14, 2025 minutes) was not discussed or acted upon during the meeting.
Discussion Items
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Measure C Revenue and Expense Report (June 30, 2025): Staff presented the Measure C (sales tax) report. For fiscal year 2024-25, the budget was $9.1 million, first-quarter actual revenue was $2.1 million (23.8% of quarterly budget), representing a 0.41% increase ($9,500) over the same quarter last year. Major industry groups showed increases in restaurants/hotels, building/construction, autos/transportation, and state/county pools, while decreases were seen in general consumer goods, fuel/service stations, business/industry, and food/drugs. Commissioners asked about closures and the ability to track specific business impacts; staff explained detailed reports are available but cannot disclose individual business data due to confidentiality. The Commission voted unanimously to accept the report.
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Measure Y Revenue and Expense Report (June 30, 2025): For Measure Y (cannabis tax), fiscal year 2024-25 actual revenue was $1.6 million, $10,000 above budget. The budget for 2025-26 is $1.6 million, a 1.3% increase. Second quarter 2025 revenue was $42,000 (10%) lower than the same quarter in 2024. Staff and a representative from the Police Department (who provided additional context) discussed the cannabis market: retail sales are capped at five permits, with four currently operational; the fifth permit has been issued but not yet opened. Non-retail cannabis businesses (manufacturing, distribution) are not capped and could grow. Competition has increased as nearby cities have opened their own dispensaries. The Commission voted unanimously to accept the report.
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Update on the Safe Streets Project: Rick Maddox from Engineering provided an update. The project replaces high-pressure sodium streetlights with LED lights, improving brightness, longevity, and energy savings. The contract was awarded in August 2024 for over $1 million, originally covering 2,500 lights. To date, 1,700 lights have been replaced, and a change order added 852 more, totaling 3,352 lights under contract. The project is scheduled for completion by October 2025. It uses Measure C funds along with funding from maintenance districts and community facility districts. Priorities include main thoroughfares (Olive, G, M, R Streets). This item was for information only; no motion was required.
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Update on Road Pavement Projects: Rick Maddox and a Police Department representative (name not provided) presented an overview. Major projects under construction: Yosemite Avenue (G Street to Parsons) – $5.8 million project including full road reconstruction, sewer main replacement, and soil stabilization; expected completion first week of October 2025. Main Street One-Way Project (MLK to O Street) – recently completed, created one-way traffic with diagonal parking and a road diet to meet Caltrans requirements for Highway 59 widening. Police reported positive safety outcomes and increased downtown parking ease. In design: R Street projects (Northwood to Olive, and 16th to 18th Streets), expected to go to bid by end of 2025. Regional long-term projects: McKee Road grind and overlay (with county), Highway 59 widening to four lanes and bridge replacement (estimated $20-30 million funding shortfall, not near-term), and Mission Avenue widening (further out, environmental review underway). Staff noted significant funding challenges for major road projects and reliance on competitive Measure V funds. This item was informational; no motion was taken.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar: The agenda included approval of the May 14, 2025 minutes, but this item was not discussed or voted on during the meeting.
- Action Item F.1: Motion to accept the Measure C report passed unanimously (Commissioners: Garcia, Johnson, Murphy, Kastecki).
- Action Item F.2: Motion to accept the Measure Y report passed unanimously.
- No motions were taken on reports G.1 and G.2.
- Business H.1: Request to add items to future agenda – no items were requested.
- Business H.2: Commission comments – no comments were made.
- Adjournment: The meeting adjourned by unanimous vote.
Meeting Transcript
I like the five years. I would like to require so you can have one. That's why you're here too. Oh no, we don't want to. I bet you I think I was going to be on the way. You bet I will. No, no, no. It's on my end, the detective side of everything. Okay, I call this meeting to order at 605 p.m. Can we do the pledge of allegiance? And to their headlight for which it stands. Okay, agenda item C roll call, commissioners two. Garcia. President. Johnson. Here. Murphy. Here. And Vice Chair Kastecki? Here. I would like to remind the audience that if they wish to address the commission, they must submit a green request to speak form located at the podium in the back of the council chamber. Citizens can submit public comment to the commission electronically no later than 1 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Comments received before the deadline will be sent to the commission and will be part of the record and will be mentioned as part of the public comment portion of the agenda. Material may be emailed to City Clerk at City of Merced.gov and should be limited to 300 words or less. Any correspondence received after 1 p.m. will be distributed to the commission and retained for official record. Agenda item D, public comment. And in your package, you did receive that. We still will be receiving sales tax um payments through what is this? Through this month. So what the information before you doesn't have the additional payments yet. Um we did add the new budget year. So for 2526, we are estimating to receive uh nine million one hundred and thirty-five thousand uh for uh measure C sales tax. That's only about thirty-five thousand dollars more than what we estimated for uh the 2425 year. So we we are still not seeing a lot of increases in sales tax the slides reflects quarter over quarter uh increases or decreases, and the good thing is that we did receive uh so this is reporting first quarter um 2024 versus first quarter 2025. So you do see that very small green um column at the end there. So the good thing is that it's positive. We had been seeing a lot of red in the last few quarters, so it is positive. Unfortunately, it's only positive by about 9500, but we'll take that for sure, uh, rather than a decrease. So the last reporting we received from HDL, which is our sales tax consultant. Um, this is the information we received. So again, we had budgeted for 2425, 9.1 million dollars. Uh the first quarter revenue we received was a little over 2.1 million. So although it was more than last year, it was still under, you know, we like to um every quarter we like to see at least 25% of the budget amount, and this was we only received 23.8% of what um the quarterly budget amount would have been. Um so quarter over quarter, it is up just a little bit, 0.41%. Um, again, because of the new sales tax measure that was put in place, we don't have historical data to compare um these major industry groups. So I am showing you what we receive for our 1% Bradley Burns, which goes into the general um into our uh general fund. And so on major industry groups, we're up in the restaurant and hotel areas, building and construction, autos and transportation, state and county pools, and then we're down general consumer goods, fuel and service station, business and industry, and food and drugs. So they see they tend to mirror each other, um not always, but most of the time they do.
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