Town of Paradise

Essentially, the problem is, despite extensive cuts to personnel, benefits, and all non-essential purchasing, the Town’s costs are greater than its revenue. For years, prior to Measure C, the Town balanced its budget by deferring critical equipment replacement and facility maintenance. It became clear that could not continue as fire trucks and police cars were found broken down on Town streets and roofs began to fail. Living within our means has also meant maintaining services with bare minimum staffing with increasing turnover.

Measure C provides 10% of the resources necessary to sustain general services, and Measure C expires in less than three years. Measure C has addressed many of the Town’s most pressing needs, but financial projections show without the extension, the Town will have to cut back our police and fire budgets and forego opportunities for road projects. This is not a scare tactic, but the public needs to know what our Town will look like without the sales tax bump.  There is no way to keep police and fire services at the current level without the sales tax extension.

The Butte County Grand Jury, after extensive study, recommends that the tax measure be extended. As illustrated in the following charts, nearby cities have a much higher percentage of revenue coming from sales tax compared with Paradise.  The charts also show that per person, Paradise residents are spending the least on their local government services -   Paradise is a beautiful bedroom community – something most residents agree is a good thing.   Paradise will never be another Chico, even with an increase in the economic base through small business in town.  Measure C has provided an infusion to the Town’s sales tax revenue that has allowed Paradise to make some much needed investments in the community.  Measure V would continue this investment until 2031.

The rest goes to other local agencies like the school district, the water district and the park district. For example, on a $200,000 home, the Town receives $460 per year to sustain police, fire, animal control and maintain roads. The Town receives 1% of the 7.25% paid in sales taxes. Our current local Sales Tax Measure C, a half percent sales tax, is retained in its entirety by Paradise.  None of that money can be taken by the State or Federal agencies and is spent in our community for Police, Fire, Roads and Animal Control.   The Town competes, whenever possible, to bring Federal and State funds back to the community from which they were paid. This money, however, comes back in the form of grants that can only be spent on very specific purposes and cannot be used to preserve basic public safety operations.

• Already, the Town is in a holding pattern. All projected future Measure C receipts have been carefully planned out and committed. Minimal Measure C reserves have been arranged to allow for support of some basic ongoing expenses for two years after the expiration; however, this leaves no room for equipment replacement, emergency expenditures or grant matching funds for the final two years.
• The Town is, even now, short on funding for an AB109 officer position at the Police Department that was temporarily funded through a grant. This additional officer has been very helpful in dealing with the realities of prisoners early release and related criminal activities
• The Town will enter into negotiations to renew a CAL FIRE contract prior to the expiration of Measure C. Between continued savings requests and Measure C support, 11.6% of the funding for the future CAL FIRE contract is unknown. The Town must know going in, if it can afford to maintain current minimum staffing levels for its wildfire vulnerable community.

Further, the Town would like the opportunity to reexamine its position after ten years given that Federal or State laws may change related to how sales tax for online purchases should be allocated. Changes could mean additional revenues locally to support services. Finally, as projections indicate that a 10-year measure is needed, it seems it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to do multiple ballot measures to achieve the same 10-year support.

The committee consists of a nine-member board of residents and business owners of the Town of Paradise.  The purpose of the committee is to provide independent recommendations and assist in monitoring and reporting of spending of tax monies.  The committee meets at least quarterly as well as at budget preparation time with the Town Manager and Finance Director to ensure that the funds are appropriately allocated.  All of their meetings are open to the public and the quarterly and yearly budget reports from the committee are published on the Town website.

This is not a “budget surplus”, but cash flow the Town uses to pay monthly expenses like utilities for buildings like the Police Department, Fire Stations and Town Hall, and payroll for employees.  Even with this cash flow reserve, the Town still must borrow money, with interest, to meet its monthly expenditure needs in between the two yearly tax revenue receipts.   The Town also remains lean with minimum staffing in all departments (21% reduction), reduced benefits, and tight spending restrictions.  

The existing balanced, but tight budget continues to provide many public services such as:

• Police protection, law enforcement, and community outreach
• Animal Control and Shelter services, dog licensing, rabies control, adoptions, vicious and dangerous animal investigations
• Fire suppression, prevention, and emergency medical response
• Building services, inspections and permits
• Onsite septic services, inspections and permits
• Engineering
• Public works

A sales tax does not overly burden Paradise residents, non-Paradise residents who use Town services, such as roads, would also contribute. On a $100 taxable purchase, this would add on only 50 cents for the shopper.  Here is an example of a family’s weekly bill with and without the measure:

Currently, Measure C is funding a second police investigator, sponsoring police cadets through the police academy in order to fill vacant positions, maintaining the police K9 program, providing additional training for public safety personnel, funding a portion of the CAL FIRE personnel contract, and funding 47% of the animal control services budget. This would account for about half of the projected revenue.

Measure V will not be able to address all of the Town’s challenges, but will allow it to respond to some of the most critical public safety issues facing the community. In addition, to the continuing support described above, following are some of the items that would be considered by the Oversight Committee and Town Council:

• AB109 Officer – Through a grant approved by local police chiefs, an additional officer was funded for a couple years to specifically address the challenges created by Realignment AB 109, the early release of prisoners and reclassification of less serious felonies. Maintaining this position is important to combat the effects to the community of this new reality.
• School Resource Officer – Prior to the recession, the school district and Town partnered on the funding for a school resource officer. A partnership could be renewed which would allow an officer to be dedicated to the safety and welfare of the children in the community.
• Police Patrol Vehicles – Measure C will allow the Town to replace 15 police patrol vehicles. To continue that trend of regular replacement allows the officers an important tool for emergency response, and keeps repair and maintenance costs in check.
• Animal Shelter Improvements – The Town would like to address the issue of cats and dogs being held in very close proximity as well as some other sanitation issues.
• Grant Matching Funds – Most federal and state grants for road and infrastructure improvements come with requirements for some local funding contributions. The Town’s current Capital Improvement Plan includes improvements of $22.5 million with $19.6 million funded from Federal and State sources and $2.9 million funded locally.
• Road Improvements – Town roads are deteriorating and funding received to repair and maintain them is far less than needed. The Town has 100 miles of public roads to maintain and maintenance is very expensive. Preventative Maintenance is $20,000 a mile and an overlay runs $300,000 a mile. The Town would need $32 million alone to bring all roads to ideal conditions. The Town continues to scrape together funding wherever possible for road improvements.
• Fire Department Access between Station 35 and Skyway – About 1/3 of the fire department calls for service in Paradise are run out of Station 35 near Cypress Curve. Response times could be improved by developing a road from station 35 to Skyway (restricted to Public Safety).
• Fire Engine Replacement – Measure C has allowed the Town to replace two first response fire engines. Fire engines should be replaced every 10 – 15 years. Our newest reserve Engine is already 10 years old. It would be prudent for the Town to replace one more engine within the next 10 years.
• Pentz/Pearson Fire Station Development - The Town owns property at the corner of Pentz and Pearson that would be the ideal second station for fire and emergency response. The Town could start the process of developing that location by demolishing the existing structure and drawing up plans for a new station.

During the most difficult years of the recession, the Town was forced to eliminate general fund contributions to all other funds (including streets, building safety and animal control) in order to provide adequate funding for public safety. Measure C has allowed the Town to start rebuilding the division. Measure C Currently funds 47% of the Animal Control budget.  

While this has helped the balance sheet, it has made attracting employees, especially experienced Police Department candidates very difficult in this area.  When certain professions experience supply and demand peaks, such as is currently the case with the position of Police Officer, this puts the Town of Paradise at a disadvantage in attracting qualified candidates.

All salary information is available to the public through the Town of Paradise website under the Finance page or at Town Hall. Each year the Town posts an annual compensation report and the annual Fiscal Year Budget with the current salary pay plan. You can click pdf here (2.09 MB) to view the salary pages of the 2018/19 fiscal year budget.