City puts two tax issues to the vote – Yuma Pioneer

The city of Yuma is moving ahead with two voting questions on tax increases in the November 2nd vote.
Yuma City Council approved two measures during last week’s regular session, while rejecting a third proposed tax vote issue.

Mayor Ron Swehla and council members Marylu Smith-Dischner, Marc Shay, Tim McClung, Daniel Ebersole, Dan Baucke and Steve Hoch attended last week’s meeting.
In connection with the election, the council initially unanimously passed a resolution that a special election on 2.
Council members then raised a poll question on an excise tax on wholesale transfers from marijuana retailers through marijuana retailers.
The vote is in response to the council’s approval earlier this summer of an ordinance allowing Kind Roots of Wray to locate a marijuana oil processing facility in Yuma. City attorney Kathryn Sellars deals with the introduction of excise duty when the product is moved out of town. However, she informed the council that she had expanded the language of the ballot papers to include any type of wholesale transfer from a marijuana production facility in the event the city ever decides to allow crops within the city limits, for example.
The consumption tax is 5 percent.
The ballot question had $ 1 million as the top end for the collection in the first year. However, councilors noted that Kind Roots’ Ross King had said it would be $ 1.2 to $ 1.4 million, so the motion went ahead with the resolution with the maximum of $ 1.4 million im first year to approve. It was cast with 7: 0 votes.
(Kind Roots leaders had said they had the Yuma facility up and running by October, but so far there has been no apparent activity. King’s recent correspondence with the pioneer indicated that Kind Roots was still looking for a suitable location .)
The council also decided to increase sales tax on the November ballot. It calls for a 1.5 percent increase, bringing the city’s total sales tax to 4.5 percent. The ballot question puts the top collection at 1.5 million US dollars in the first year. The resolution was passed with 6: 1 votes, with Baucke being the only dissenting party.
A resolution was also presented to the council to put an accommodation tax issue on the ballot. A lodging tax issue was rejected twice by Yuma voters. Council members said they had decided to introduce the lodging tax at a later date and then approved a motion to reject the resolution.

Assess study / elevations
John Krajewski, who has done similar studies for the city of Yuma in the past, presented a water and wastewater cost and service / rate design study.
He noted that the city had not increased the basic price of water for several years. Citing rising material, consumables and other costs, he recommended the city to increase it by 3.2 percent from January 2023.
For the wastewater tariff, he recommended an increase in the EQF (Equitable Residential) tariff by 4 to 5 percent from January 2023. Krajewski also recommended a change in the calculation method for consumption. The flow-base method would better identify customers who use water primarily for outdoor purposes.
Baucke asked why the city wouldn’t break the increase down to two years instead of doing everything at once. Krajewski said he normally supports this method, but 2022 could serve as the base year with the new calculation method before the increase is implemented in 2023.

annexation
The next step in the annexation of the city’s property between Detroit Ave. (Highway 59) and the Indian Hills Golf Course, now known as the Church Annexation, were undertaken during the meeting last week
The resolution, which was adopted with 7 to 0 votes, accepts the request for annexation and sets October 5, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. in the town hall as the place and time for the public hearing on the proposed annexation of “a parcel of unincorporated territory” Yuma County. “

YUMA
Representatives from Yuma Unified Making Advances (YUMA) gave a long presentation to the council.
Kerri Horton stated that the organization has 10 committee members, including childcare workers and interpreters. She said YUMA wants to develop a relationship with the city and is ready to have a MOU with the city.
The focus is on affordable housing, youth, recreation and community justice.
Horton said the group will advocate for fairer schools, provide simultaneous interpreting training, and offer separate workshops on justice for youth and adults.
YUMA has also invested money in setting up a fund to help youngsters pay to participate in athletics. It takes a simple application for the youth to receive the money, pay fees, or equipment such as cleats.
Much of the discussion, however, revolved around the issue of housing.
Horton said her research found there are landowners evicting tenants illegally, and the organization wanted to put an end to that by educating people about their rights.
Councilor Hoch said he didn’t know landlords were such an issue, noting that many have not paid rent for 18 months since the pandemic began. He said his family only performed three evictions, and one with drugs, in over 50 years.
Hoch said he had a different perspective on the Yuma landowners than he heard. Horton said the focus is on protecting tenants’ rights in the event of an eviction. She said from her research that many own a lot of properties. When the numbers were pressed, Hoch was told that 13 owners own more than 150 properties and one owns 50.
“I would love to read everything you have,” said Hoch.
Alex Ebersole went through a long list of organizations and individuals who could assist Yuma in formulating an affordable housing plan.
It was found that even if something was in place, contractors still need to be available to get the job done.
This led to further discussions about how to find such contractors.

Rest of the meeting
• The council approved the purchase of a Western United transformer for $ 12,626. The delivery time is 26 weeks.
• City Manager Scott Moore said he and some council members had gone to the Yuma County Economic Development Corporation meeting in Joes the night before and found communication to be the biggest topic of discussion.

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