Measure E2026 proposes utility tax increase

Measure E2026 is a proposed utility tax increase for Isla Vista residents that will be on the primary election ballot on Nov. 3. The measure proposes a tax increase of 7% on methane and 6% on trash, sewage, water and electric. 

The Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) proposed the measure in order to generate approximately $1.2 million in annual revenue to fund improvements to housing services, community-based public safety and transportation, among other community-based initiatives. 

Measure E would add onto the already existing 8% tax on gas, water, electricity, sewage and garbage disposal service created by Measure R-2018, which would raise the total tax on water, electric, sewage and trash to 14% and 15% for methane. This tax is significantly higher than the typical utility tax rate — Santa Barbara has a utility tax rate of 6%. 

IVCSD Director Spencer Brandt said Measure E is “about the future of Isla Vista” as it will help fund local resources and contribute to the fight for cityhood. The Local Agency Formation Commission is currently conducting a comprehensive fiscal analysis of I.V. to determine if it is financially viable to become a city. According to Brandt, the last analysis from 2015 found that a hypothetical city of I.V. would have a $3 million deficit. 

“We have seen, as a community, over the past year that our voices have not always been taken seriously. I talk to students [and] long-term residents, that both feel the same way, and Measure E is about providing the locally-controlled revenue for us to enact more local control,” Brandt said. 

IVCSD estimates that if the measure passes, it will amount to around a $5 per person per month increase. Brandt believes the collective contribution of the tax increase will help address issues impacting most residents. 

“Cityhood will allow us to address the housing affordability crisis,” Brandt said. “We have no mechanism to be able to affect things like the price of housing and to be able to address the ways that landlords are price gouging students and non-students to renters like myself.”

Brandt believes that I.V. cityhood is a necessity and that “Isla Vista is at best an afterthought to the powers that be.” 

“We’re not in a situation where the status quo is working, and so we need to try something else,” Brandt said. “And that means empowering the people that actually live here to be the ones to make the decisions under the county’s political structure.”

Brandt said that Measure E would help permanently fund community-based safety programs like the Guardian Team — a harm reduction-oriented security resource — to address issues like violent crime, rather than minor crimes. 

“We need our public safety officers, our law enforcement officers, focused on the things that matter: addressing sexual violence [and] addressing violent crime,” Brandt said. “Right now, under the status quo, there’s a lot of focus on tickets for minor crimes, things like open containers.” 

IVCSD will also use Measure E revenue to expand local public transportation access to I.V. residents. Brandt proposed the possibility of subsidizing train tickets. 

Brandt said that if Measure E doesn’t pass, I.V.’s public safety efforts and resources could be at risk. 

“If we pass Measure E, we’ll have the funding to be able to really take bold action on the things that people care about, like housing affordability, better models of public safety, more local control,” Brandt said. “If we don’t pass Measure E, then a lot of these efforts and a lot of the services are at risk in the future.”

A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Oct. 29 print edition of the Daily Nexus.