Font ResizeALAMEDA — Faced with a sluggish economy and anticipating future belt-tightening, the City Council has decided to try to raise the tax people must pay when buying and selling a home here.
If voters approve the ballot measure in November, the tax will jump to $12 per $1,000, instead of the current $5.40.
The increase would add up to $5 million to the city's coffers.
The estimated $9.1 million in transfer tax money annually would be used to keep fire stations open, restore library hours that have been cut and help pay for other services, Deputy City Manager Lisa Goldman said.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to put the tax on the ballot.
It will need a simple majority to pass.
The decision follows city officials commissioning a survey among Alameda voters on what kind of tax they would support, as well as what city services they wish to maintain and where they would accept cuts.
The majority of the 400 people polled, or 70 percent, do not want any cuts in police patrols or paramedic services. But 65 percent would accept some cuts to the maintenance of parks and sports fields and 58 percent would find cuts to recreation programs acceptable.
The survey also indicated that 43 percent of voters would support deep cuts at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex.
Councilwoman Marie Gilmore said the results underscore the difficulty in bridging budget shortfalls since police and firefighters enjoy public support,
Trimming other city programs and services is not "where we would get the most bang for our buck," Gilmore said.
"We have to make the public understand, we can't make some cuts in our library hours and balance our budget," Mayor Beverly Johnson said. "That's not going to help us."
The survey also showed that a $120 parcel tax for police and firefighters would not get the two-thirds majority it would need to pass.
The effort to increase the "real property transaction tax" also follows the council approving $4 million in cuts in February and comes as it faces a projected $5 million shortfall over the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
"We do see stormy seas coming toward us," Goldman said on Tuesday.
Rob Platt of the Alameda Association of Realtors said the council should look for other ways to generate money, maintaining that a higher transfer tax would unfairly burden people purchasing a home.
"These are real dollars that buyers and sellers are paying," Platt said.
The initial ballot proposal that went before the council called for increasing the tax in Alameda from $5.40 to $14.50 per $1,000, or just under the $15 per $1,000 that exists in Oakland and Berkeley.
The original proposal would have generated about $10.6 million, Goldman said.
But the council opted for $12 after a spokesman for Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates, which carried out last month's survey, said the results also showed lukewarm support for a tax increase and that city officials still would need to make a hard pitch to voters.
Goldman noted that money expected to come from increasing the transfer tax is a projection. The estimate does not take into account a further slump in the real estate market or what may be generated through future development, such as the 300 homes planned for Alameda Landing in the city's West End.
The transfer tax would sunset in 20 years, and would be subject to audits, according to the draft ballot measure.
The Albany City Council voted July 7 to place a similar measure on the November ballot. It would raise that city's tax from $11.50 to $14.50 per $1,000.
Reach Peter Hegarty at phegarty@bayareanewsgroup.com or 510-748-1654.
