Taxing Times: Salinas voters might see a special election for public-safety tax.

There's so much enthusiasm for taxes in Salinas right now, you'd never know that the Tea Party candidates have been winning or that an anti-tax spirit is influential in the United States. 

Salinas voters will decide on two tax measures on Nov. 4, and now they are likely to have a third tax measure to vote on, this one generated by the public, through gathering signatures on a petition. 

The Salinas Committee for Public Safety turned over more than 13,500 signatures to Salinas City Clerk Patricia Barajas in September. Last week, Barajas certified those signatures, meaning the committee's call for a public safety tax is qualified to go to the voters. 

It's too late to make the Nov. 4 general election, so the public safety tax will likely be scheduled for a special election early next year, at an estimated cost of $100,000-$150,000, according to Barajas. 

In June, Salinas City Council voted 6-1 to put a 1-cent sales tax on the November ballot. Measure G would be a general tax, meaning its estimated $20 million annual revenue would get divvied up by an oversight committee according to need—not dedicated to any specific function or department.  

But the Committee for Public Safety wants to see a special sales tax, earmarked for public safety functions, namely fire and police. 

"By the way, that #1 problems facing our city today is public safety and crime, not pot holes and tree trimming," Amit Pandya, president of the Committee for Public Safety, wrote in a statement. 

Both penny sales taxes would last for 15 years. A general tax requires just a simple majority of votes to pass, while a special tax requires two-thirds.

It's not clear what will happen if both Measure G and the special tax measure pass. Barajas and City Attorney Chris Callihan are preparing a report for City Council to consider on Oct. 21, which will offer up three options: They can schedule a special election for early 2015 for voters to decide on the measure; they can simply adopt the tax measure as proposed by the committee, bypassing a costly election; or they can ask city staff to get more information. 

On Election Day, Salinas voters will also decide on modernizing the city's Utility Users Tax, which would generate up to $1 million per year. That would effectively update tax code to include new, more prevalent technologies like cell phones.