LATHROP – Right idea, wrong time.

That was the consensus among the Lathrop City Council members on a proposal to put a ballot measure before the voters in the November 2010 elections aimed at raising local sales taxes to fund police services.

The proposal went nowhere with the council taking no action at all during their Tuesday night meeting, citing the lack of adequate answers to a host of questions about the measure.

“We should take a slow approach. Right now, I think we have more questions than answers,” said Council member Sonny Dhaliwal, echoing the concerns of her colleagues and others in the audience.

Among the questions brought up:

•Why was the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District left out in the proposal?

•Along that vein, how should “public safety” be defined in the proposal? Should it refer to police services alone? How about the services provided by firefighters? Shouldn’t that be considered a public safety issue as well and, therefore, should also include the fire district to benefit from the sales tax hike being proposed?

•And if that be the case, how would the tax revenue be split between the two agencies? Shouldn’t there be a formula hammered out first before even getting a measure on the ballot?

•Where do the taxpayers come into the picture? Should they not be informed about it first, find out what they think and say about their taxes being raised, and then present them with the measure on the ballot?

“We’re not saying we don’t want to move forward but we have a lot of questions,” said Dhaliwal who proposed that there should be more discussions held on the issue with the residents and members of the fire district involved in the process.

He went as far as suggesting Town Hall meetings with residents to get their reaction and gather their input on the issue. He also suggested starting “two by two” meetings between the council and fire department with two members from each agency getting together to “keep the communication channels open” and find out what the city can do to assist the fire district.

Former councilman Steve Dresser said the math just doesn’t work if the city considers raising sales taxes to generate city revenue.

Raise taxes when store sales are down because people who are feeling the economic pinch just don’t have the money to spend? It does not jibe, he said.

“You’re not going to get anymore from a turnip. It won’t happen,” he said.

He suggested waiting a year before making a sales-tax hike proposal and hope that the economy turns around.

“No, this is the wrong time,” Councilman Robert Oliver said, joining the consensus with the other speakers.

“I’d lead the charge against taxing ourselves,” he said, adding he also would like to see fire safety included in the discussions and not just police services.

Oliver said he also does not feel comfortable that the “impetus for this (sales tax measure proposal) came from the dais” and cannot imagine residents approving this measure under “difficult” economic times.

“I’m opposed to the use of money at this time,” he said, referring to the $197,000 that would be needed to get the tax-hike measure on the ballot in the November 2010 elections.

Under the proposal that came before the council, Lathrop would need to allocate $197,000 from its general fund reserves to get the measure on the ballot. Broken down, the costs would have covered: $142,000 to pay for a consulting firm’s services (with $55,000 paid for the consultants’ fees; $45,000 for the opinion research; and, $42,000 for direct mailing), and the remaining $15,000 and $40,000 going to pay the San Joaquin County of Voters in getting the measure on the ballot, and the State Board of Equalization, respectively.

The city is currently in ongoing negotiations with the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department on how to further cut the $3+ million budget deficit for the current fiscal year 2009-2010. Lathrop contracts its police services with the Sheriff’s Office.

The city already had instituted layoffs – 15 positions were eliminated in May – 10 percent pay cuts across the board, and furloughs with City Hall closed on Fridays in hopes of balancing the budget. About $1 million in cuts are still needed to get rid of the budget deficit, and the city is trying to see if some of those cuts could be done in the police department. The proposed sales tax measure was an effort to avoid cutting down police services.