Clovis votes today on sales tax hike

Two City Council incumbents face one challenger in election.

Published online on Tuesday, Mar. 03, 2009

Clovis voters will decide today on who will fill two council seats and whether the city can raise raise its sales tax by a penny to help fund municipal services.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Incumbents Lynne Ashbeck and Nathan Magsig are seeking their third four-year terms on the City Council. Attorney Douglas Foster is the sole challenger.

But the real contest surrounds Measure A, the one-cent sales tax increase that supporters say would restore cuts to municipal services. Opponents say it could hurt business in a bad economy.

Ashbeck supports the tax measure. Magsig has not said publicly how he will vote, but said voters should be free to decide the measure. Both supported putting it on the ballot.

Foster, a Fresno lawyer, opposes the tax measure, and cites it as a reason one of the incumbents should be replaced.

Both opponents and advocates of the tax measure held rallies Monday as reminders for residents to vote.

If history is any guide, most of the votes tabulated today will be from absentee ballots.

In 2007, Clovis' last council election, about 75% of the votes cast were by absentee ballots. But turnout was just 21%.

This year, Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar said turnout may hit 30% because of the tax measure on the ballot, but most votes will still likely come from absentee voters. The Fresno County Elections Office is overseeing the city's election for the first time since 2001.

As of Monday, the elections office had received about 9,650 absentee ballots.

Those ballots represent about 20% of the city's 49,000 registered voters, said Andy Anderson, voter registration program coordinator for the Fresno County Elections Office.

Salazar said the state Legislature's decision to raise sales and other taxes, coming just weeks before Clovis voters have to decide on their own tax increase, may spur turnout. However, a forecast of rain today could dissuade some people from going to the polls, he said.

The election will cost the city about $127,000, Salazar said. The city decided to have the county handle the election to save money, although a precise estimate of the difference was unavailable Monday.

If approved, the city's penny sales-tax increase would last for 10 years before dropping to three-quarters of a cent. It has no expiration date.

Proponents of Measure A say the city needs the sales-tax increase to maintain police, fire, recreation, senior services, parks and roads at existing levels. The city has cut nearly $8 million from its budget in the past two years.

Opponents say the sales-tax increase will hurt Clovis businesses and that the city should have to make cuts the same as families and businesses do in an economic downturn.