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Paramount council narrows focus to parcel tax and protective sales‑tax measure to address projected deficit
Summary
Facing a projected structural deficit, the council instructed staff to study a parcel tax (business/industrial tiers), craft a quarter‑cent sales‑tax protection measure, and hire a polling firm to test voter support before placing measures on the ballot.
Paramount’s City Council directed staff to develop more detailed parcel‑tax scenarios and a protective quarter‑cent sales‑tax measure and to return with a polling contract after a finance presentation that laid out the city’s revenue shortfall and ballot options.
Finance Director Lana Deetsch presented a long‑range forecast showing a widening structural deficit and said staff had identified four revenue options: a cannabis tax (estimated in the presentation at $250,000 to $1,000,000 annually), modernizing and removing the cap on the utility‑user tax (the presentation cited an estimated $225,000,000 annually), a quarter‑cent sales‑tax increase (staff estimate roughly $2.0M–$2.4M annually), and a parcel tax modeled to generate approximately $4,000,000. Deetsch said the parcel tax is a special tax that must be tied to a purpose and requires a two‑thirds voter threshold; she also reviewed implementation costs and examples used in the presentation.
Council members focused on fairness and feasibility: several said industrial and distribution uses in the city currently contribute little to local sales tax despite imposing road and public‑safety costs, and they expressed interest in tiering a parcel tax so industrial, commercial and vacant parcels bear differing rates. Multiple members favored protecting locally raised sales‑tax revenue in case a county or regional agency seeks to capture it and supported putting a quarter‑cent protective measure forward. The council asked staff to provide a breakdown of which business types currently pay sales tax and which do not, more parcel‑tax modeling (including tiering and vacant‑lot treatments), and voter polling scenarios.
Staff said general tax measures must usually appear on an election that coincides with council member elections (the June cycle) unless structured as a special tax tied to a specific purpose, which can go on a November ballot but requires a two‑thirds approval threshold. The council asked staff to return with polling and the draft ballot language options and discussed timing for June 2026 and November 2026 ballots.
The council did not adopt a formal ballot measure at this meeting; staff will return with parcel‑tax scenarios, poll results and recommended timing for placement on the ballot.
