www.montereycountynow.com OCTOBER 16-22, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 In places powered by a tourism-based economy, there are some obvious pros and cons. The City of Monterey developed an elegant solution to this back in 1985 with the creation of the Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program, or NCIP. The program receives 16 percent of transient-occupancy tax, paid by hotel guests, every year. Neighborhood representatives appointed to the NCIP committee vote on projects—proposed by residents, often for residents—with some real financial muscle behind them. Over the last three years, City Council has approved 105 NCIP projects with a combined budget of $22 million. But city officials simply cannot keep up. Of those 105, only 40 have been completed; 42 have not yet started or are inactive, with a balance of $8.6 million. The total NCIP backlog includes 86 approved projects that would cost $17 million. Besides that delta between year-to-year dream and reality, there is an existential challenge facing the 40-year-old NCIP program. The City of Monterey is looking at a $10 million deficit projected in the 2026-27 budget year. It’s a structural deficit, meaning that the finance department’s analysis of revenues and expenses shows the gap continuing—it’s not a one-time freak situation (like a pandemic) that can be solved with a quick onetime transfer of funds. All of that means city officials need to make tough decisions about how to generate more revenue and/or cut expenses to close the gap. City Council is scheduled to discuss the issue and set policy direction in motion when they next meet on Tuesday, Oct. 21. Options on the table include a possible tax on private parking lots; a fee billed to insurance companies for first responder calls; a vacancy tax; or an admission tax on venues, which could generate an estimated $3.9 million per year, the overwhelming majority of that ($3.3 million) from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Council has already decided to hire a public polling research firm to evaluate the public’s openness to a potential measure on the June 2026 ballot for a 0.375-percent sales tax, the highest amount allowed without a special carve-out from the State Legislature, generating an estimated $4.5 million annually. They’ll also survey the public on a possible extension of Measure G, a 0.5-cent sales tax that sunsets in 2029. “We are looking for not only short-term solutions but also long-term solutions to stabilize the city’s budget to continue to provide the service residents expect and deserve,” Assistant City Manager Nat Rojanasathira says. “The focus is on ways to increase revenue while reducing impacts and taxes on Monterey residents.” Knowing there may not be an appetite for new or extended taxes, part of that equation includes the hard part of the discussion: potential cuts. NCIP has risen to the top of the list, primarily because it falls in the category of nice-to-have rather than need-to-have. It will require at least four out of five council members to re-appropriate NCIP funds. To get the conversation started, the NCIP Committee and City Council held a joint meeting on Monday, Oct. 13 to explore possible cuts. Mayor Tyller Williamson advocated for what he called a “rack and stack” approach, keeping projects on a list in case future revenue comes in, whether from taxes or from private sponsors. The council direction was to cut about $4 million from NCIP, requiring those committee members to go back to their approved project list and reprioritize. Coupled with another projected $3 million in salary savings through things like staff attrition, “We’re left with a $4 million gap,” Rojanasathira told councilmembers on Oct. 13. How to make up that $4 million gap will be the main topic of discussion when council reconvenes on Oct. 21. Councilmembers Jean Rasch and Ed Smith assured Rojanasathira that layoffs are not on the table, but still, council will have to make some tough decisions. “The great part is we are really listening to each other and we’re really talking,” Rasch said. “I’m not sure where we’re going to end up.” Nobody knows yet where they will end up, but we do now know where they start: Sacred cows like NCIP are no longer sacred. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com or follow her at @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social. Taxing Times The rubber meets the road for Monterey’s budget deficit. By Sara Rubin TIME SUCK…Squid has seen some colossal wastes of time while attending public meetings, but luckily for a cephalopod with eight arms, there’s always some knitting or doodling to do. But even Squid ran out of fidgeting projects on Tuesday, Oct. 7 when the Monterey County Board of Supervisors went on— and on, and on—only to end back where they started. Supervisor Luis Alejo made a referral a year ago to set a name for the tiny village being built in Watsonville as temporary housing for people living in tents along the Pajaro River levee, a partnership between Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. That referral was delayed as the village went through a contentious approval process in Watsonville. Now that the project is near completion (good news), Alejo brought the name topic forward again, wanting to change the recommended name of “Recurso de Fuerza” (“Resource of Strength”) to something easier to pronounce, as well as something that conveyed the mission, either Casitas de Esperanza (“Houses of Hope”) or Hope Village or both. To do so would require a lot of staff time (aka taxpayer money) since all the funding documentation that went to the state used “Recurso de Fuerza.” People familiar with the project contended that the name was chosen by the levee residents themselves in a survey taken a few years ago. Alejo called that a “myth” since the original survey records no longer exist. Supervisor Chris Lopez supported Alejo’s suggestions, contending it was better to do it now before the village opens to save on the cost of signage, but Supervisor Glenn Church was stymied why they were even discussing it at all, since Santa Cruz County will take over ownership of the village in about six months. “That’s a decision for another jurisdiction,” Church said. It was in the best interest of Monterey County’s budget, he argued, “to punt this.” Alejo and Lopez landed on a vote to suggest Santa Cruz officials name it either Casitas de Esperanza, Hope Village or both, or to engage in a public process to choose a name. The vote was 2-1, since two supervisors were absent. It took around 45 minutes to get to approving these suggestions. But then County Counsel Susan Blitch said the vote didn’t count—they needed all five supervisors present, not just three. Alejo was dumbfounded. It made no sense, he said, since they had a quorum. If Blitch is right, then no business could ever get done during absences, a rather routine issue. Another 15 minutes went by as she searched for relevant court decisions. In the end, they decided to bring the matter back to discuss it all again on Oct. 14, after Squid’s deadline. That sucking sound you hear? The one hour spent on a name for a project already named that the county won’t even own. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. City officials need to make tough decisions. SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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