Is the price of a latte worth improved sidewalks, lighting and parking in Isla Vista?
Residents will decide this November.
Isla Vista residents will soon vote on whether to tax themselves 6% of their trash, sewage, water and electric bills, and 7% of their methane gas use.
For Jana Cooper, a senior at UCSB living in Isla Vista, the revenue from the tax could help fix a noisy street light near her house that buzzes loudly at night.
“Since our utilities aren’t insanely expensive, a 6% tax isn’t the worst in the world,” Cooper said. “I would pay that to help the town improve.”
Cooper also said parking in Isla Vista is a problem during the school year and supports a parking program.
The Isla Vista Community Services District Board approved the tax at a meeting in June, and estimated it would generate $1.2 million annually. The money would be used to implement unarmed responses to non-violent offenses on Friday and Saturday nights, create a resident parking permit program and expand street lighting.
Katherine Carmichael, president of the board of directors for the Isla Vista Community Services District, said the tax adds up to the cost of coffee at about $6.
If the utility tax passes in November, the revenue from it could put Isla Vista in a better position financially to become its own city, a concept Carmichael said has been talked about for many decades in the town.
“We’re trying to solve a lot of problems, and at the end of the day all roads lead to cityhood,” said Carmichael from the district.
The list of services the utility tax could pay for comes from an annual budget survey completed by 130 residents in the district asking what kind of improvements they would like to see in the town.
The revenue from the tax measure could also improve public transit, clean and safe public spaces and community events such as Soltopia — an event hosted by the district this year as an alternative to the unsanctioned Deltopia festival on Isla Vista’s Del Playa Drive.
The ballot measure will need a two-thirds majority to pass come November.
