Congressman Josh Harder makes no apologies for working with city leaders — specifically Mayor Gary Singh — to help Manteca secure additional federal tax dollars other than what the city might secure.

“I made a promise in 2017 to help Manteca (and the rest of the District) to get more of their federal tax dollars back,” Harder said in an interview last month.

Harder’s ability to secure funding for Manteca has surfaced as a campaign issue in the Nov. 3 mayor’s race.

“I’m not going to apologize,” Harder. “My job is to get the most bang for the buck for constituents.”

Former Mayor Ben Cantu — who is running for the District 1 seat in 2028 and is supporting Jacob Naven for mayor — slammed Harder and Singh working together as an example of “the good old boy” network.

Cantu believes the securing of federal grants re-enforces his contention that Manteca continues to under fund local services and as such helps mask what he characterizes as long-term financing issues.

Cantu when he was mayor noted the city needed to pump up its revenues by $60 million to $80 million annually and pushed a permanent one cent sales tax that would have generated roughly $20 million a year. That 2020 sales tax measure failed.

Singh, in his second year as mayor, helped author the temporary 20-year Measure Q three-quarter center sales tax that passed in 2024. It is currently generating $16 million a year.

Cantu has indicated electing Naven and then his taking over the council seat now occupied by Charlie Halford in 2028 will help put Manteca on the path to better financial footing.

Meanwhile, Singh and the current council have started requiring all new development to be part of perpetual community facilities districts to help generate additional funds to hire police and firefighters as well as street maintenance in new neighborhoods.

Those three items represents nearly 70 percent of the general fund expenditures.

The city is also securing a bigger portion of the property tax splits with the county on annexations while at the same time increasing non-growth fee concessions from new development to expand community infrastructure and amenities.

As far as Councilman Dave Breitenbucher is concerned, Singh is doing an effective job promoting Manteca and working with regional boards and other elected officials such as Harder to secure funding for Manteca.

That funding — through Harder’s efforts — has included $850,000 for the animal shelter expansion, $599,000 for the real time crime center for the new police station, and federal assistance for the Highway 120/Highway 99 upgrades, among other things.

“It (federal funds) helped make the just competed 120 Bypass (and Highway 99) work possible,” Breitenbucher said.

And while he noted it was a state project and not a civic endeavor, Breitenbucher said Singh has worked tirelessly to secure state and federal funds for the highway upgrades as well as major arterial upgrades as the city’s representative on the San Joaquin Council of Governments.

The funds are in addition to annual grants such as the federal Community Block Development Grants distributed to cities for underserved census tracts within their jurisdictions.

Singh also gets credit for helping the city secure the largest ever grant in Manteca’s history: $16 million to establish homeless navigation center by building a working relationship with Susan Eggman when she was state senator.

The bottom line is the work now underway on the remodel at 555 Industrial Park Drive will not require local taxes meaning the construction costs will not crimp the city’s current ability to deliver general fund services such as police and fire protection.

Councilman Mike Morowit has noted elected leaders establishing working relationships with county, state, and federal leaders is a benefit for Manteca residents.

Other Harder efforts

now underway in DC

Harder is working on three federal budget requests that will have a direct or indirect impact on Manteca.

*$2 million for a community center with a possible swimming pool on city-owned property on the northeast corner of Daniels Street and Milo Candini Drive across from the Big League Dreams sports complex.

*Funding for the Manteca Police Department Mobile Command Center project.

*Assistance to help Delta College to establish a bio economy training center at the District’s Manteca school farm just to the north of the Lathrop Road and Highway 99 interchange.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com