Of course veterans deserve our support. But why should Fresno taxpayers foot the bill?
Of course veterans deserve our support. That’s one of the least controversial statements you’ll ever read.
But who should foot the bill for facilities and programs designed to help those with prior military service? In Fresno, city officials have grappled with that question for decades and typically tap out — a primary reason why the venerable Veterans Memorial Auditorium needs $11 million in upgrades just to bring the historically listed building up to code.
Fresno’s current crop of electeds are proffering a solution, one that passes the buck (or the hat) to residents. It arrives on the November 2022 general election ballot in the form of Measure M, a 20-year, 0.125% sales tax to improve facilities and services for the city’s estimated 20,000 veterans. The proposed tax, which equates to a penny for every $8 purchase, is projected to raise $19.5 million annually and requires two-thirds voter approval.
The initial thought of Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez, one of the measure’s primary drivers, was to create a special veterans district such as the one in Clovis. However, that proved problematic for two reasons: one, the Clovis Veterans Memorial District already includes parts of Fresno; two, Chavez wanted to offer services that go beyond what veterans memorial districts are permitted to provide.
Most people think of the Clovis Veterans Memorial District as a building or meeting space near Old Town Clovis. It’s actually a unit of government, a special district formed in 1946. For boundary lines, its founders used the same ones employed by what was then called the Clovis Union School District.
North Fresno, as we know it today, didn’t exist in the 1940s; the area was still farms and orchards. But Pinedale did, and Pinedale School belonged to the Clovis district. Which explains why today’s Clovis Unified School District (formed in 1959) includes so many schools with Fresno addresses, as well as why the CVMD encompasses much of north Fresno in addition to parts of southeast Fresno and rural county areas.
The bulk of the Clovis veterans district’s funding comes from property taxes charged to parcels within the district’s boundaries. Meaning as north Fresno grew, so too has that income. Of the district’s $4.1 million fiscal year 2023 budget, $3.6 million comes from property taxes. Income from facility rentals provides the rest.
By law, veterans districts are limited to building and maintaining facilities and memorials. They can also provide programming and sponsor events, such as holiday parades and military signing days at area high schools.
Tax initiative chosen over special district
CVMD board chair Tom Wright bristles each time he hears a Fresno politician insinuate the Clovis-based district doesn’t provide assistance to Fresno veterans. (“Our doors are open to veterans wherever they come from,” he says.) Wright has been involved in talks with Fresno leaders for three years and suggested they create their own district using the Fresno Unified and Central Unified boundaries.
However, the complicated codes and standards that special districts must adhere to, along with their limited scope, prompted Fresno city leaders to opt for the sales tax measure.
“I think most residents will be open to supporting this, and our polling did show that,” Chavez said. “It helps there is no concerted opposition.”
Why does Fresno need nearly $20 million per year to assist veterans, an amount nearly five times the Clovis Veterans Memorial District annual budget?
The first answer Chavez gives is that the CVMD facilities are not in dire need of investment. Fresno most certainly does — and none more so than the Veterans Memorial Auditorium that houses the Legion of Valor Museum and occupies a full block of downtown. Only the ground floor of the three-story 40,000-square foot building is usable.
“It used to be a crown jewel, and we’ve let it dilapidate,” Chavez said of the 86-year-old venue that has hosted everything from beauty pageants to political conventions to concerts by Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles. “It’s embarrassing for the fifth-largest city in California.”
Clearing the two-thirds voter majority
Besides renovating the auditorium and VFW halls, money generated by Measure M would provide social programs to veterans that go beyond the purview of a veterans memorial district. Chavez cited homelessness assistance, mental health and substance abuse counseling and job training/placement as services the tax could fund.
Unlike Measure P (the 2018 parks tax), there is no specific formula for how Measure M money would be spent. A seven-member, council-appointed advisory board, made up entirely of Fresno veterans who reside in each council district, would provide input and oversight.
To help Measure M clear the two-thirds-majority hurdle, the Fresno City Council is expected to allocate funds set aside for public education efforts. Look for those details to emerge at the Sept. 29 council meeting and for the campaign to be rolled out in October.
“To me, this is the least we can do for people who sacrificed so much for this country,” Chavez said.
Hard to disagree with that sentiment. But when Fresno voters are asked to support veterans out of their own pockets, on a ballot with two competing local tax measures, it becomes easier to see how 33.3% or more just might.
