Manteca Mayor Ben Cantu Tuesday doubled down on his belief there needs to be additional taxes assessed against homes throughout the community and not just new growth to bolster municipal spending

Cantu asserted that it was “unfair” for only new home buyers to be saddled  with a tax to prop up police and fire services and existing homeowners not contributing more.

Cantu’s remarks came a week before voters will decide whether to re-elect him to a second four-year term as Manteca’s mayor.

He is being challenged by Councilman Gary Singh and political newcomer Lei Ann Larson.

Cantu emphasized the need for a citywide community facilities district (CFD) during a City Council discussion whether to procced with an annual fee to cover a projected shortfall in funding for police and fire services that the 1,237-home Manteca Trails subdivision at the western end of Woodward Avenue is expected to create.

The amount — which has yet to be precisely determined — will be somewhere around $1,152 per home based on a preliminary study earlier this year.

As such, a communitywide CFD that encompasses old neighborhoods without CFDs and newer ones that have CFDs that do not pay extra for police and fire could face up to an additional $1,152 a year burden under Cantu’s plan.

Cantu has gone on record repeatedly favoring such a communitywide CFD that could help address a wide array of spending shortfalls such as street upkeep as well as provide funds for new initiatives.

Council members Charlie Halford and Singh both doubted such a communitywide CFD — even if its formally proposed and put to a vote of electorate  — would ever pass.

Both said they weren’t wild about the idea of a CFD for police and fire on new growth but saw it as the only way forward for Manteca to address chronic revenue shortfalls for city services of which police and fir consume 62 cents of every general fund dollar spent.

Singh and Halford — along with council members David Breitenbucher and Jose Nuno — ended up voting to implement the CFD that will be use as a template for future development. Cantu cast the only dissenting vote.

CFDs can only be implemented by a vote of parcel owners.

One vote is assigned to each parcel within a proposed CFD.

For example, developers that own Manteca Trails’ 45 existing parcels cast all 45 votes Tuesday in favor of the CFD that will include police and fire assessments. Those parcels ultimately will be broken down into 1,237 lots with homes built on each one.

Cantu believes it is also unfair because the developers in casting their votes are encumbering future homeowners with the additional annual tax.

Singh has noted that the additional taxes that homes have through CFD are a choice for buyers of a home to assume. They are not forced to buy homes encumbered with a CFD

The amount of a CFD payment is factored into whether a buyer can secure a mortgage to purchase a home.

 The ordinance adopted Tuesday places the maximum annual assessment per house in Manteca Trails for parks and landscape upkeep at $599 and for street light maintenance including power costs at $69.

The exact annual tax for police and fire will be determined by taking what each household will generate in property taxes — the city gets roughly 17 percent of every dollar paid —  and sales tax generated from residents and subtracting it against the per household cost of providing public safety.

The gap will be the special tax rate for public safety.

All of the annual assessments will have an adjustment for inflation.

Buyers of all new homes in Manteca in the future in projects that haven’t gotten beyond the point they can be encumbered with the stepped up CFD to pay for police and fire service as well as street maintenance will see an annual tax bill roughly 12 percent than other new homes in subdivisions that moved ahead before the city could implement the new fees

That’s based  on a new home selling for $640,802.

Going forward, every time the house sells, roughly a $1,820 in annual assessment for police, fire, streets, landscaping and park upkeep plus street light maintenance would be transferred to the new owner along with any adjustments for inflation made on an annual basis.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com