Merced Tax Transparency Commission Meeting - February 10, 2026
Merced Tax Transparency Commission Meeting - February 10, 2026
The Merced Tax Transparency Commission met on February 10, 2026, to review December 2025 financial reports for Measures C (sales tax) and Y (cannabis tax), elect a new chair, and discuss future agenda items. No public comments were received.
Consent Calendar
- No items were considered under the consent calendar.
Public Comments & Testimony
- The clerk reported no public comments were submitted or spoken during the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Measure C Revenue and Expense Reports (December 31, 2025): Staff reported that Measure C transaction tax revenue for fiscal year 2024-25 was nearly $9 million, with an estimated $9.1 million for 2025-26. Third-quarter 2025 revenue showed a 9.5% cash increase and 8.5% adjusted increase over the prior year, with all industry groups up. The final 2024-25 revenue was $6 million, exceeding the budget by $444,000. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recommended minimum fund balance for 2025-26 is $1.5 million. During the budget process, seven public safety positions (one firefighter, four police officers, two dispatchers) were added to Measure C due to general fund constraints. However, staff forecasted that expenditures will exceed revenues over the next five years, requiring potential reallocation of those positions. A question was raised about a $143,000 variance in fire expenditures; staff explained it was due to a vacant firefighter position. The commission unanimously voted to accept the report and forward it to the City Council.
- Measure Y Revenue and Expense Reports (December 31, 2025): Staff reported cannabis tax revenues for 2025-26 are estimated to be similar to the prior year, with a slight decrease of less than $1,000 in the latest quarter. For fiscal year 2024-25, actual revenue totaled just over $1 million, exceeding the budgeted $774,000 by $248,000 due to lower-than-expected expenditures. Expenditure allocations are fixed: 20% each to police, fire, and parks and recreation, with 40% discretionary among those areas. Two mid-year requests were noted: $60,000 from fire for AED replacements and a software subscription request from police to correct a budget omission. The commission unanimously voted to accept the report.
- Selection of New Chair: Commissioner Murphy nominated Vice Chair Kistecki for Chair. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. The commission noted that the vice chair position would be agendized for the next meeting.
- Request to Add Item to Future Agenda: Commissioner Murphy requested updates on road repaving (including potholes) and street light LED conversion status. Staff confirmed that Measure C can cover street lights and will bring information to a future meeting.
- Commission Comments: No comments were made.
Key Outcomes
- Measure C Report: Unanimously accepted and forwarded to City Council (motion by Murphy, second by Johnson; all in favor).
- Measure Y Report: Unanimously accepted and forwarded to City Council (motion by Murphy, second by Johnson; all in favor).
- New Chair: Vice Chair Kistecki elected Chair unanimously. Vice chair election deferred to next meeting.
- Future Agenda Items: Staff to prepare updates on road repaving and street light LED projects for a subsequent meeting.
- Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Murphy, second by Garcia, passed unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I will call the meeting to order, please. Okay, agenda item B Pledge of Allegiance. I led allegiance to the United States of America. And we've ever thought what the register one nation under the individual liberty. Okay, agenda item C, roll call, commissioners. Garcia. President. Okay, Johnson. Here. Murphy. Here. Flores. Here. Uh to car. Did I pronounce that correct? Okay, good. And then Vice Chair Kastecki. Here. Okay, Vice Chair Kistecki, 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 be will be mentioned as part of the public comment portion of the agenda. Material may be emailed to city clerk at City of MRSA.gov and any correspondence received after 1 p.m. will be distributed to the commission and retained for the official record. Agenda item D, public comment. The clerk's office did not receive any public comment for this meeting tonight. And just for the record, there are no audience members to leave a public comment. Agenda item E, action items. E1, Measure C revenue and expense reports for December 31st, 2025. Good evening. So this is this uh the slide that tells you what we've received over um several years of Measure C transaction tax uh for uh 2425. Um we received a little a little close to nine million, not quite nine million, and then for um 2526, we're estimating to receive a little bit over um nine point one million. So there are there is positive news in uh sales tax area. So we did see quite a big spike there. If you could uh look at the third quarter 2025, so we do compare to the prior third quarter of 2024, and we did get um uh a little over 200,000 of an increase for the quarter, so that that is positive news. We had not been getting very much as as far as increases, they were kind of staying steady, um, but we did get quite a jump there. So we're hoping to continue that positive trend moving forward. Just to give you a little bit of uh more detail on that um third quarter revenue. So we we do um we are estimating a little over 9.1 million for the year to be received. Uh for third quarter, we got a little over 2.4 million, so that's 26.6% of the budget. So as long as we're hitting at least the 25% mark, right, for every quarter, uh that's what we want to at least see. Um that's up 9.5% on a cash basis, and it's up 8.5% on an adjusted basis. So when I talk about adjusted basis, what happens is that we tend to get money from retailers in different quarters, but they were due maybe in the prior quarter, right? But we're getting it now. So they give a they tell uh they put the money where the quarters where it belonged in the quarters, and then they tell us that it's up 8.5% from an adjusted perspective. And then we tell you which industry groups are up, which ones are down. In this case, we're seeing up in all of the industry groups. So again, that's all positive news. So now that we've kind of kind of completed our audit for 20 um 2425, we like to come back and tell you how we ended the year based on what we estimate uh we thought we would end the year, so we thought we would end the year at about 5.6 million dollars. We actually ended at 6 million, so uh it's a little bit better than we thought, so 444,000 to the positive.
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