EVEREST June, 2013 - California Department of Boating and ...

Orange County Coastal Regional Sediment Management Plan
the state. A 0.25 percent increase in sales tax dedicated to shoreline protection could raise a
substantial amount in revenues, ranging from $1.5 to $1.9 million per year.
Table 3.18 Sales Taxes for San Clemente from 2007 through 2010
SALES TAX REVENUES 2007 2008 2009 2010
Sales Tax Base $756,131,467 $750,508,400 $604,355,200 $662,085,467
0.75% to City (actual) $5,670,986 $5,628,813 $4,532,664 $4,965,641
0.25% increase $1,890,329 $1,876,271 $1,510,888 $1,655,214
Source: City of San Clemente
Special GHAD
As described earlier, a GHAD can be created to finance the prevention, mitigation, abatement or
control of a geologic hazard such as actual or threatened landslide, land subsidence, soil
erosion, earthquake, or fault. The City of San Clemente has a very large property tax base and
raises just under $23 million per year. This represents over 70 percent of tax revenue
collections for the city. It is reasonable to assume that a GHAD in the San Clemente area could
raise substantial revenues. However, the boundaries of the GHAD would need to be spelled out
precisely and the revenues could only be used to protect threatened property (i.e., storm
damage protection) rather than recreation, though the two goals could be compatible.
3.8.5 Summary of Revenue Discussion
Overall, the above example indicates that there are many options to increase coastal protection
funding for San Clemente. Of these options, TOTs are used in other states such as Florida to
raise revenues for beach nourishment and the cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach have
passed initiatives in recent years to facilitate beach nourishment. In California, 60 percent of
TOT ballot measures passed in 2003 through 2007. However the case study of San Clemente
indicates that the amount of revenues raised by TOTs may be modest.
Some cities may want to consider raising non-resident parking rates as a means of raising
revenues for beaches. Parking fees are not popular, but if residents are exempt they may be
effective in some places.
Even a modest increase in sales taxes would raise a substantial amount of money, though it is
unlikely that all of this increase could be dedicated to beaches. Sales tax increases have about
a 50 percent success rate in California, so a well-organized ballot initiative which included other
issues besides beaches might succeed.
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