What a difference three quarters of a cent makes.

Heading into the Manteca City Council’s workshop on establishing goals and spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year starting July1, the city finds itself in an unusual position.

It no longer is forced to keep deferring replacement of critical needs such as aging and problematic fire engines or keep staffing at the barebones to meet minimum municipal needs.

The reason is the Measure Q three-quarter cent sales tax voters approved in November 2024.

The sales tax that runs through 2045 is on pace to generate $14 million annually.

“Thanks to our residents who supported Measure Q, we're moving our city forward, strengthening our infrastructure, public safety, and overall quality of life to meet the needs of our growing community,” City Manager Toni Lundgren said.

While Lundgren continues to stress that Measure Q is not a panacea, it is the fuel being added to the general fund revenue tank to help the city plot its trip through a year so they don’t end up running on empty.

That’s not to say the city doesn’t have healthy reserves.

But based on budgeting principles to allow cities to weather ups and downs in economic cycles, dipping into them to cover day-to-day needs to provide public services due to revenue shortfalls is the equivalent of reckless driving.

Reserves are best when they are used for the proverbial rainy day emergencies, allowing for set aides to replace vehicles and equipment as they age, and to seize on opportunities that would allow the city to expand its revenue and strength the local economy.

Measure Q also provides the missing part of the puzzle to fund needed facilities and desired amenities.

Doing so in the past has been a struggle at best without adequate revenue as two false starts to address the critical need of a police station over a 22-year span demonstrate.

Budgeting, overall, for day-to-day services has been a struggle since 1985 when the city literally was down to $1,000 in reserves, replacing aging police cars when CHP units with 90,000 miles on them, and the city couldn’t open the then new Louise Avenue fire station for more than a year as they couldn’t afford to staff it even with only two firefighters.

“Measure Q is not only improving our roads and infrastructure but also securing essential funding for projects like the new Police Department, help close funding gaps for Fire Station 6, and the addition of nine firefighters, all crucial for our growing city,” Lundgreen pointed out.

The goals and priorities workshop Thursday at 9 a.m. at the Manteca Transit center, 220 Moffat Blvd., has a Measure Q update and overview at the top of the agenda.

And while it isn’t a magic elixir that solves all the city’s problems, it is the ingredient that makes other strategies the city has been pursuing and implementing — robust growth fees, community facilities district funding of public safety positions, more equitable tax splits with the county, and economic development — more effective at delivering needed and desired services and amenities.

That said, Lundgren has consistently underscored the fact — during community workshops leading up to the tax election and since its passage — that Measure Q won’t pave city streets with gold.

But it can help address a heck of a lot of potholes and other pavement issues as well as other needs.

Revenue projections

& what will get done

The tax originally was projected to raise $10 million to $13 million annually when the council met for last year’s goals and priorities workshop.

The sales tax went into effect April 1, 2025.

That is why a clear, precise read on what it will generate for a full budget year — July 1 through June 30 ­— won’t occur until Manteca gets five more months of taxable sales under its bet.

That said, as Feb. 4 the city has received $6.2 million in Measure Q receipts of what the latest projection entered into the city budget would be $14 million for the current fiscal year.

The first full year of Measure Q revenues will allow the city to make a much more precise spending plan that is do-able.

Lundgren has cautioned that while the city needs to not squirrel away Measure Q money and put it to use in a timely manner that is fiscally responsible, Manteca needs to resist getting ahead of itself, or more actually, spend money it doesn’t have.

The money collected in the four months of the previous fiscal year generated $3.8 million.

The Measure Q spending plan for this year is $10.6 million, of which $3.3 million has been spent.

The budgeted expenditures are $2 million for police, $3.7 million for fire, $2.3 million for streets $2 million non-department and $439,000 for parks.

“Additionally, the city will actively pursue grants, and any freed-up funds could be reallocated by the council to address other community needs,” Lundgreen said. 

Going forward, a Measure Q spending plan will assume funding for a 17 year bond to help pay for the new police station and the sixth fire station.

It also includes the need to cover funding for nine additional firefighters that in the first three years that won’t be covered by the federal grant.

Original one-time funding areas that the council attached to Measure Q for potential funding besides streets and traffic as well as police and fire stations were:

*A community park and pool.

*Economic development.

*Animal shelter expansion.

*Operations and equipment.

*Park maintenance.

*Youth and senior programs.

*Public facilities updates.

*Housing/homeless services.

*Public safety general use.

*A seventh fire station.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com