If you shop in Santa Barbara, your purchases could soon cost a bit more. City leaders are considering a half-cent sales tax increase.
Eva Linowski, who has operated the Antique Alley store on State Street for 31 years, says she's not in favor of a tax increase.
"People do ask us, how much our sales tax is, and it’s on our backs, so once again I think it's gonna hurt the little guy," Linowski said.
To break it down, we calculated a real-life scenario.
"We have some diamond earrings and they are $100. At the present sales tax, they will be $108.75," Linwoski calculated, adding that if the sales tax increases to 9.25%, the total would be $109.25. "Which, you know, affects a lot of people who don't have a lot of money. I mean, the people that do have a lot of money it's not going to affect them at all."
Tourist Nick Voss says sales tax over 9% seems high, but "Nothing I can do about it, so I don’t really pay attention."
Santa Barbara’s current sales tax is 8.75%, the same as Goleta and just below Carpinteria. If passed, a half-cent increase would give Santa Barbara the highest sales tax in the county.
Finance Director Keith Demartini says an increase is necessary as the city faces a projected $7 million budget deficit for 2025.
"And so that gap between our revenue growth and our expenditure growth has grown in recent years and is projected to continue to grow," DeMartini explained.
He says increasing the sales tax by a half-cent could generate $15 million annually, but it's not the only way to do it.
"We don’t want to raise taxes either, it’s just one strategy we are looking at as an organization," DeMartini said.
He says the city has been proactive in expenditure reduction and auditing existing taxes to cut costs.
Linowski says she’s glad the final decision will be decided by the community.
"This is one thing maybe we can control with our votes!" she exclaimed.
Next Tuesday, the city council will vote on whether to add this proposed increase to the November ballot.
