The City Council of Cathedral City voted unanimously to place the Cathedral City Services Measure on the November 2024 ballot at the regular meeting on July 24, 2024.
If approved by Cathedral City voters, the measure would add ½ cent to the existing transaction and use (sales) tax until ended by voters, providing a source of local funds that cannot be taken by the State.
“Resident surveys over the last several months show that our residents prioritized maintaining the essential public safety and infrastructure services needed to keep our neighborhoods safe,” said City Manager Charlie McClendon. “Over the last five years alone, there have been over $30 million in takeaways from Cathedral City by the State. The funding this measure would provide will allow Cathedral City to address the increase in property crime, maintain 911 medical emergency ambulance, paramedic, fire protection and police response times, address safety and security in our parks, and increase repair of local streets and potholes with funding the State cannot take.”
The Cathedral City Services Measure was placed on the ballot following significant community engagement with residents, as well as the input of a years-long resident ad-hoc advisory committee, who unanimously recommended a local measure be placed on the ballot to address the City’s needs.
Policy needs that the measure could address include addressing the five-year high increase in crime, with over 825 reported burglaries and thefts, including more than 250 car thefts, and the need to address the nearly two-thirds of Cathedral City’s streets and roads rated as “fair,” “poor,” or “very poor” by independent engineers before third continued deterioration makes them more expensive to fix.
With current funding levels, the city cannot address these issues while maintaining the other critical 911 emergency response, park safety, and fire safety programs rated by residents as important to them, and with continued state takeaways, the City would have to make challenging choices on which programs to prioritize.
“With today’s action, the Council has elected to allow the community to decide,” continued McClendon.
By law, the Cathedral City Services Measure cannot be taken by the state and includes accountability provisions including public disclosure of all spending and annual independent financial audits.
For additional information, please visit www.cathedralcity.gov.
