The Antioch City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday evening to allow City Manager Steve Duran to move forward with crafting a possible initiative for a residential rental business license tax.
Under last night’s approval, the City Manager will present the basic terms to “The Friday Morning Breakfast Club”, the California Apartment Association and the Antioch Chamber of Commerce:
- Establish that the rental or leasing of real property is a business subject to the City’s Business License Tax
- Raise the minimum Business License Tax to $100 a year for all business subject to the gross receipts formula other than the rental or leasing of residential real property
- Establish a minimum Business License Tax on mthe rental or leasing of detached single family dwelling units at $250 per dwelling unit per year
- Establish a minimum Business License Tax on the rental or leasing of attached multi-family dwelling units at $150 per dwelling unit, including condominiums, cooperatives and apartments.
The additional landlord fees could bring in $2.6 million per year.
The Council is hoping all sides can compromise or the Council will be forced to decide “fairness”. The Council demonstrated last night that they are ready to move forward with the citizens initiative in one form or another.
Mayor Wade Harper thanked the citizens for bringing this forward and leading the charge.
“Way back when we looked at two measures, the polls said if we put both on the ballot they would both fail, if we put one on the ballot it would pass, so here we are today,” said Harper. “Lots of meetings and we are hopefully we can find a resolution that is satisfactory to everyone involved.”
About a dozen speakers spoke in favor of the initiative and vowed to collect signatures and get it on the ballot—no one spoke out against the potential measure.
Donald Freitas explained that last year they took the councils request to heart and came up with the idea to increase city revenue.
“From our perspective is what we always wanted is a stable, secure source of revenue for Antioch forever. We know Measure C is temporary,” said Freitas. ”It doesn’t make sense to hire officers, train them, give them equipment and then lay them off because we won’t have the revenue in the future. This tax provides a stable foundation.”
Freitas also explained they wanted fairness for all businesses who pay taxes.
“We always want to treat business fair and equitable manner. We found landlords have paid next to nothing. That is wrong and needs to be corrected,” stated Freitas. “The hope we have is for you to direct staff to basically follow his recommendations. They are sound and prudent and will be good for the community…. This is a small step in closing a loop hole and having everyone pay their fair share.”
Larry Harrison stated his support for the potential measure and urge all citizens to help support the citizens group and sign the petitions and push forward.
Marty Fernandez explained he was tired of the talk from staff input and multiple meetings and wanted the council to make tonight the first reading of the measure.
“Call this the first reading of the landlord residential fee tonight and let’s get it going and get it started. As a council you lost all credibility, you can’t see it, but not increasing police budget and using measure C to backfill the budget, you have broke a promise. You don’t see it because you don’t want to,” said Fernandez. “You all ran on zero tolerance on crime and we are going to do this and that, what have you done? Let’s get behind it.”
Marie Livingston shared she supports the measure because it would generate $2.7 million in new revenue because there are an estimated 12,000 rentals in Antioch. Explained how rentals are more likely to use police services than owner occupied homes.
“These are for-profit units and they should pay a fee also,” said Livingston.
Mark Jordan explained how he was in favor of the measure because its fair and said he and others should and could pay more.
“This is fair and equitable,” said Jordan. “There was an attempt to negotiate with Apartment Association and it went nowhere. The City Manager proposal seems fair. All I am asking is put it on the ballot because that is what you said you would do.”
George Briggs explained the IRS says it’s a business so it should be taxed.
Terry Ramus explained that since this is a business, they should be taxed as well.
Prior to council discussion, Duran explained how the City was proposing to increase minimum Business License Tax in Antioch from $25 to $100. The fee in 1947 was $25 and it has not changed.
In Brentwood, the minimum tax $100, in Oakley its $100 and Pittsburg is $30. Staff is recommending raising the minimum for any business to at least $100—the Antioch Chamber of Commerce is opposed to any increase in the minimum Business License Tax for non-residential rental business.
Duran his hoping to have further talks with the Chamber to try and get them to support the idea. He stated that if all goes right, this could be brought back to the Council by June to get it officially on the ballot for November.
Mayor Harper expressed his support of the idea of moving forward with a landlord tax.
“I did make a commitment to support a residential rental business license tax. I know you have did due diligence and worked to come to some agreement,” said Harper. “I am going to support it, I don’t know which one at this point but I am going to support some form of this measure and will figure it.”
Councilwoman Monica Wilson also agreed with the tax.
“I supported it then and support it now. It’s stable funding and think this is something I can still support being on a ballot,” said Wilson.
Mayor Pro Tem Mary Rocha scolded the Apartment Association as many tried to negotiate with them and it went no where. Others came to the table to compromise and they did not participate.
“It’s wise as a council we go forward as a council and community,” said Rocha. “We need to go forward and don’t mind going with $250 and $150. Whatever works!”
Councilman Tony Tiscareno explained how he supported this last year, but passing Measure C was important because it was a short term remedy and immediate funding. He called this measure step towards a long-term solution and a compromise.
“Fairness is really important to me. This is not a lot of money and this is about fairness. This is something that I do appreciate and looking at the whole aspect of business. It’s not a lot of money to ask from business owners. Looking at this as a whole I think the city staff did a great job. Citizens initiative, it’s also good. We want to look at something that is fair for everybody and this is fair for everyone. I support this,” said Tiscareno.
Councilman Gary Agopian explained how the citizens initial was a reasonable fix to generate income in a purposeful way.
“Do I need to make the argument we need the money? I don’t need to make the argument, we know we do. Do we need to argue about this anymore? No we don’t. We need to go forward,” explained Agopian. “My friends, it is time in Antioch, this is reasonable, its $20 per month. It’s not $240per year its $20 per month it’s not too expensive.”
He further explained that once the fees are factored in, it’s over. He further stated that this fee will be factored into the cost of rent.
“Rents are going up in the Bay Area, if they are not up in Antioch, they will be because housing prices are moving up. I support giving the city manager based on his proposal to us,” said Agopian.
Council voted 5-0 to allow Duran to move forward with trying to find an agreement.
Note
In an email, City Manager Steve Duran, he explained in an email the citizen’s petition is a general tax, so the City could spend it as it sees fit. The tax would only need a 50% plus one vote to pass.
12 comments
If the Council had real guts, they would go back and start collecting the taxes that landlords have not been paying for years. Would solve a lot of budget problems
With regards to the current Antioch Business License fee (tax) set at $25, it is actually $25 for up to $20,000 gross income. Above $20,000 it is based on a sliding scale plus $25.
A first time Business Application fee is $30 and a Business License Verification fee is $25.
Ridiculous. This is illegal and Antioch will get sued. Waste of everyone’s time and gets all the citizens hopes up. This bogus Saturday Morning Breakfast Club should be ashamed of themselves. ECT why are you not exposing the illegal nature of this proposal or correcting the misinformation presenting by the City and Breakfast Club?
There is nothing illegal about it. The Club has had an attorney working with us the entire way through. The city attorney agrees and so on.
So get a grip Jill. Life is going on. The club had to do something to get this city moving again. At least we have been doing something for our city which most people have not been.
I support the Landlord Rental fee. I think it should be a little more but at least it is implemented. Oakland has a rental fee which is much higher than $20 a month. Many of the surrounding cities have a fee as well. Antioch is so far behind.
Nothing much has been said about the enforcement of these fees/taxes. That’s been part of the problem all along. Fees that are already on the books aren’t getting collected. I’d like to know how much money was collected in 2013 on existing business license fees versus what should have been collected. Arne, can you answer that? First, let’s start collecting the fees that are already on the books!
It is up to the city to decide what to do regarding past uncollected items.. Our item has $300,000 built in to cover the cost of setting up a “collection department” to collect all fees etc owed to the city yearly. That way they can’t use the song “we have no money” again.
To make this work however, an anonymous (truly anonymous) tip line must be set up so that all rental and sublet rental units can be identified. It’s time to take OUR town back and this is a great first step.
BTW: Thumbs up to Marty.
Sounds good. Maybe Antioch will stop being a town full of rentals and back to the sweet town it use to be. I think they should charge landlords more. They have ruined our town while making money for themselves. How many landlords live in Antioch? You can bet not too many.
I have recommended this action in many presentations made to our Council. It established fairness to business In Antioch. We have become a city of rentals. Many investors have purchased multiple residence properties for return on their investment (ROI). That is a business practice without question. Increasing initial $20.00 to $100.00 is a concern for me. I know that rate has not changed since 1947 but I feel the jump to $100.00 is too steep. I suggest that $65.00 would be a good compromise. Perhaps the Chamber will agree , we should make the change as reasonable as possible.I continue with my position on “deficit spending” . We MUST wait until the money is collected before we spent it or we will continue to bury our city into deeper debt. Fred Hoskins
it is out of this world, that antioch operates with a fee schedule made up in the sixties and even way back to 1947. no wonder we’re broke.
and by the way, it’s NOT that WE must wait/ before WE spend…it’s the city who has a spending problem.
Good point Fred, but $100 is not unreasonable given that all the surrounding cities are at $100. I’m sure that the chamber will end up agreeing. Besides, based on past history, Antioch will still be at $100 in 2050.
Comments are closed.