agenda city of watsonville city council/redevelopment agency meeting

Internal loan to “refinance” General Fund obligations to CalPERS. This item is detailed in the
companion staff report to the City Council’s budget adoption report.
Instruct the County of Santa Cruz to levy and collect property tax. As provided by the City’s
Charter, annually the City must set the levy rate and instruct the County of Santa Cruz to levy,
collect and remit to the Retirement Fund proceeds to support the General Fund for its
employment retirement costs. The Charter states:
There shall be levied and collected…(2) a tax sufficient to meet all obligations of the
City to the State Employees' Retirement System, or other system for the retirement of
City employees, due and unpaid or to become due during the ensuing fiscal year
(Section 1122, b2).
In the November 2006 general election, the voters of the City of Watsonville placed a cap on the
annual levy of 0.077% (or $77 per $100,000 in assessed valuation) for the fiscal year beginning
on July 1, 2007. This was done in tandem with voter approval for a ¼-cent increase in the City’s
Sales Tax rate in which the intent was to not impact the General Fund’s ability to provide critical
public services. The annual levy rate is projected to provide 45% of the total General Fund
retirement costs and is therefore in compliance with the City Charter by not setting the levy at a
rate that exceeds the anticipated costs.
Redevelopment Agency; Low & Moderate Income Housing. Annually the Redevelopment
Agency must adopt recurring resolutions that support the use of Redevelopment funds towards
Low and Moderate Housing projects within the City.
The first of the resolutions finds that the Redevelopment Agency’s use of funds for planning and
general administrative costs is necessary as these planning and administration services are spent
for the purpose to produce, improve and/or preserve low and moderate income housing.
The second of the resolutions is a joint resolution between the City and Redevelopment Agency
and finds that the support of the Redevelopment Agency’s use of funds outside of its boundary for
Low and Moderate income projects benefits the Redevelopment Agency. The Redevelopment
Agency project area does not have sufficient capacity for needed additional Low and Moderate
Housing and the Watsonville VISTA 2030 plan requires affordable housing throughout the
community.
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