Regina Lackey did not support Measure Q.

The 20-year voter-approved three-quarter cent sales tax was on the November 2024 ballot when she was elected to represent southeast Manteca on the City Council.

That said, she has made it a point to make sure the extra funding from sales tax is spent the way voters were promised.

The promises included investing in public safety, improving streets, working to find other funds to make Measure Q’s impact more robust, enhancing the community, and economic development among others.

The one she zeroed in on as a priority at her first budget goal setting meeting 11 months ago was for the city to seize the opportunity offered by Measure Q to invest in strategies that would generate more revenue for the city to operate to avoid the need to seek future tax increases.

 The city acquiring the IOOF Hall (Manteca Bedquarters) for $1.2 million and working to rehab it with a private sector concern to secure desired restaurants and entertainment in downtown is one such strategy.

Lackey noted Measure Q funds are not involved but the fact the city now has a cushion elected leaders were comfortable with tapping into a $2.5 million general fund reserve for economic development to purchase the building.

“(The city was) robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Lackey said of what was happening going back several years.

As such, the city was borrowing from internal funds collected for one purpose to help bridge spending shortfalls.

Previous elected councils were leery of using the economic reserve in case the city’s tight budgeting hit a bump.

Having Measure Q that is on track to add roughly $15 million annually to the municipal general fund has allowed the city to do a number of things — including addressing pressing public safety and street needs — as well as work to “grow” the city’s revenue base without raising taxes.

Lackey noted the condition of many downtown buildings has created a hurdle to luring private sector tenant investments needed to open restaurants and such.

“The city is not going into business,” Lackey said of the IOOF Hall acquisition.

Instead, she sees it on the same level as the municipal investment in establishing the city-owned Big League Dreams sports complex.

That has allowed the city not just to secure a tenant to run the complex but to avoid upkeep and maintenance costs. The arrangement, based on the initial analysis, will avoid taxpayers having to spend $16 million to operate and maintain the complex over 35 years.

Lackey noted the city’s move addresses a long-term problem where landlords either did not have the stomach or financial means to address issues with aging buildings that have, in some cases, made it problematic to secure tenants.

The payback for Manteca would be two-fold — more revenue from new business for the city and private sector amenities the community has indicated they want.
The role that Measure Q had in the decision for the city to become more proactive was pointed out by City Manager Toni Lundgren at the council meeting where the council approved the deal for the IOOF Hall.

The tax measure provided the city with the ability to move forward with economic development strategies by being able to address pressing day-to-day city needs.

In the first year of Measure Q revenue, $2 million has been spent for pressing vehicle and equipment replacement needs and $3.65 million for new breathing apparatus and two replacement fire engines.

That is in addition to $4.5 million to allow additional street and road maintenance to go forward including what would have been done with $2.5 million in lost gas tax funds.

Measure Q will also help pay for the new police station and the city’s sixth fire station that will be built in southwest Manteca.

Lackey also noted the city has been keeping its promise to look for other sources to wed with — or supplant — Measure Q revenue.

In the case of the fire department, the city was able to secure a grant of more than $900,000 to cover the $1 million tab for replacing the breathing apparatus.

In addition, the city secured almost $2.7 million in a Federal Emergency Management Agency to offset part of the city’s cost to hire nine more firefighters.

That means $900,000 of Measure Q funds can be used for other needs while the city has assistance to absorb the annual cost of increasing the front-line firefighting personnel by 20 percent.

Ideally, other strategies to generate tax funds will allow the city to cover the ongoing personnel costs of nine more firefighters.

Lackey said the new revenue strategies take aim at the drawing power of the 500-room Great Wolf Resort.

“People go to Great Wolf and they may also go to Chili’s or they go to Great Wolf and drop by Target to buy something,” Lackey said.

Not only does the city benefitting from Great Wolf room taxes, but taxable sales at gas stations, restaurants and other venues that guests may visit in Manteca also flows into municipal coffers.

The city’s 100-acre family entertainment zone project is building on the synergy or Great Wolf and Big League Dreams to secure more businesses that out-of-town visitors as well as residents from nearby cities are likely to access.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com