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Carpinteria council grants consent to Santa Barbara County Wine Business Improvement District
Summary
Carpinteria City Council voted to adopt Resolution 6354 consenting to a county-led Santa Barbara County Wine Business Improvement District that would assess a 1% levy on retail wine sales; the city has one winery that supports the proposal.
Carpinteria City Council on Feb. 3 adopted Resolution 6354 giving the County of Santa Barbara consent to form the Santa Barbara County Wine Business Improvement District (WID), a county-led effort that would impose a 1% assessment on retail wine sales in the district.
The WID proposal was presented to the council by Allison Laslett, chief executive officer of the Santa Barbara Vintners Association, who told the council the assessment is levied on sales that incur California sales tax so collections can be audited through HDL, the county's tax contractor. Laslett said about 60% of the wine industry in the county supports the measure and that the assessment proceeds would be spent on marketing, public relations and “government education” for the wine industry, not philanthropy.
Laslett told the council Carpinteria is home to one winery that supports joining the district and that inclusion on county marketing — for example, being listed on the county’s “Santa Barbara Wine Country” maps and digital campaigns — is one of the primary benefits to the city. She said the WID aims to add about $1.5 million or more annually for marketing and that historical county marketing funds produced measurable increases in visitation and sales in previous grant rounds.
Why it matters: the assessment would be a recurring charge on retail wine sales across the district; because the county would administer collections through HDL, Laslett said sales can be tracked by city and the county will be able to report trends by municipality.
Council action and next steps: after receiving the presentation and asking questions about local benefits and reporting, the council called for public comment, heard none, and moved to adopt Resolution 6354. The motion was seconded and passed by voice vote.
What the WID would pay for: Laslett described marketing and industry promotion (digital advertising, PR placements and trade outreach), as well as visitor-facing resources such as winery pages on the vintners' website. She said the vintners' association separately operates a charitable foundation for philanthropic work (for example, a fund that has raised money for vineyard workers) and that WID assessment dollars would not be used for that foundation’s grants.
Local reporting and accountability: Laslett said HDL can produce sales-by-city reports and that if the district is formed the county would resume producing city-level sales reports that could show whether assessments and marketing correlate with local sales changes.
