Almost two years ago Lafayette voters passed Measure H — a half-cent sales tax, about $2.4 million a year, for seven years. It was the responsible thing to do, and I supported it. But let’s be honest about what it is: every dollar goes to maintaining the services we already have. It buys us time. It does not fix our finances, and that seven-year clock is already running.
When Measure H sunsets, the Council will face the same structural pressures we face today, plus the cost of liabilities that only compound: drainage, deferred maintenance, wildfire, pensions. As a CCCERA trustee helping oversee a multi-billion-dollar public pension fund, I see every month how unfunded liabilities grow when they’re ignored. We should use this window to get ahead of them.
Right now, our finance work happens in a two-member Council subcommittee of the Mayor and Vice-Mayor. Those members work hard — but two people meeting periodically can only do so much, and we leave an enormous resource untapped: the residents of this town. Lafayette is full of people who do this for a living — investors, accountants, business owners — people who’ve spent careers finding efficiencies and growing revenue. They want to help. We should let them. I worked on Measure H, the parcel tax we recently passed in Lafayette for our TK-8, and I saw first hand the credibility gained from the school district having and Advisory Body just like this. It shows we welcome scrutiny and expert opinion and are always looking out for what's in the best long-term interests of our city.
• Expand the Finance subcommittee into a standing fiscal advisory body that brings residents with real financial expertise to the table alongside Council, as ex officio public members.
• A clear charge: explore efficiencies and cost savings across the City, and bring the Council concrete, well-vetted ideas to grow revenue that don’t depend on the next tax measure.
• Plan now for the Measure H sunset — the forward-looking partner to the Measure H Oversight Committee, which looks backward at how the money is spent.
• Fully accountable: advisory only, meeting in the open under the Brown Act. It doesn’t take a single power away from the Council — the Council decides what to act on.
The bottom line: it costs almost nothing to stand up, and it tells residents we take their money — and their talent — seriously. How do we spend less and earn more, so we depend less on temporary taxes and can finally invest in our future?
