The City of Santa Ana is facing bankruptcy in five years, when $30 million in local sales taxes go offline – part of a decrease in Measure X, the sales tax approved in 2018 that has financed all the recent program expansions, according to the Voice of OC.
Of course the Santa Ana City Council Members are in a panic. One of them, Johnathan Hernandez, says we can fix this by hosting MMA fights. LOL!
Hernandez’ council ally, Benjamin Vazquez, says the city should make a revenue generating committee to come up with ways to bring money into the city.
City Councilman Phil Bacerra said the city needs to start looking at ways to generate revenue and Mayor Valerie Amezcua agrees that the city needs to generate revenue.
However none of our Council Members are addressing why so many businesses are opting to open in cities other than Santa Ana!
The Rose Institute conducted a Cost of Doing Business Survey in Orange County back in 2018. They found that the City of Santa Ana had a high cost of doing business. Santa Ana ranked 26 out of 28 cities in regard to the cost of business licenses and 20 out of 28 cities with regard to cost of property taxes.
Councilman Bacerra says that he was able to convince the City to stop requiring Certificates of Occupancy, which used to be mandated for all new businesses even if they were not doing anything that would require a building permit. That brought Santa Ana inline with all other Orange County cities.
However our city remains more expensive to do business in. On top of that we charge the highest sales taxes and, because our voters keep approving bond measures, we have the highest property taxes in Orange County as well.
If Santa Ana wants to dig out of its financial sinkhole it will have to start by being more business friendly. Hernandez and Vazquez don’t get that and likely never will.
When was the last time a major business opened up in Santa Ana? All we see is closures and bankruptcies.
Dutch Bros. just opened to huge fanfare in Fountain Valley. They are already looking at opening many more new coffee shops in Orange county – but not in Santa Ana…
Hey, I love MMA… At least one person would attend..lol
MMA may attract some business but it won’t make up for the fact that our city is too expensive for businesses to deal with. They will keep opening up in other cities…
Santa Ana is a toilet. Crime is high. The homeless were out of control for awhile. I can always tell when I cross into Santa Ana because the roads are falling apart. There is absolutely no reason to go to Santa Ana except for court. Even the fancy new mexican market has opted to locate in Costa Mesa. Santa Ana needs to re-examine their priorities. What do businesses want? Lower taxes. Lower fees. Less red tape. Better security. If Santa Ana wants to save money, they need to cut social services and handouts. Unlike the Federal government, which can print money and so can buy votes with handouts, Santa Ana must have a balanced budget. Which means that the elected officials have to start acting like faithful stewards and not Father Christmas. However, if the people want Father Christmas, then they will get what they pay for and that will be a ghost town.
No free parking
Sale more weed , that’s the solution.
I am a multi tenant 6 unit mom and pop rental property owner in Santa Ana. Yhey have instituted strict rent control that only allows a small 2.5% rent increase while my property insurance is up over 20%. Utility costs are up double digits and no wY could I consider improving the property. All that can be afforded under this regime is minimum maintenance. Not a good recipe for tenants or small landlords in tgf long run. Santa ana considers my property a business and requires a business license. Also, wants to charge me $600 per year to “register” my property with them
Don’t know why anyone would want to buy a rent a l or business in Santa Ana. I would sell mine if the taxes wouldn’t kill me. So what is there solution here? More fees!!!! Hahaha ha. Some people just don’t get it.
They need to recruit the local gangs to collect taxes for them, there good at it.
What do you mean? Didn’t Santa Ana JUST spend a million dollars on a worthless recall election? I thought that meant Santa Ana had plenty of money to waste. Sure, the price of street sweeping is doubling. Sure, the homeless is ruining the aesthetic of the city with their tent cities and feces at every corner. Sure, crime is increasing by the day. Sure, the schools are failing students with their low standards. But as long as the city can call itself “progressive” that’s all that matters.
A wise man once said, “Go woke, go broke.”