Is Redding ready for a sales-tax hike? If that question’s giving you angst, you can unwind by watching one of the productions filmed here in the North State last year, the BBC’s “Top Gear.” In the meantime, find out more about both in the “Buzz.”
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Dave Benda(Photo: Dave Benda)
Hotelier Ed Rullman, who co-founded the Redding Merchants Crime Watch and sits on the Redding Chamber’s political action committee, believes a half-cent sales tax for public safety might not be enough.
I spoke to Rullman on Thursday, five days before the Redding City Council is poised to declare a fiscal emergency that would allow the city to put a sales-tax measure on the June ballot.
More:Redding will weigh fiscal emergency, sales tax for public safety
Rullman, speaking for himself, said he supports the council declaring a fiscal emergency — “They should have done it long ago” — and thinks a half-cent tax would do a lot of things, but it might not be enough to plug the city’s $20 million general fund deficit over the next decade and solve the area’s crime woes.
“I think we need an injection of revenue, maybe to the point of a 1 percent sales tax,” Rullman told me. “I think a quarter-cent tax doesn’t do much.”
A 1 percent hike would raise the sales tax in Redding to 8.25 percent. That $800 washing machine would cost $8 more in taxes. A $20,000 car, $200 more in taxes.
Echoing a common sentiment, Rullman said we must do something, and it’s the council’s job to let the people decide.
The Redding City Council next month will consider the declaration to push a sales-tax onto the June ballot. Video courtesy city of Redding.
Redding voters already have spoken twice on the matter, most recently a resounding rejection of a general sales tax in November 2016. Rullman and other business leaders campaigned for the half-cent tax measure.
Rullman was disappointed that Councilman Adam McElvain on Feb. 22 voted against the idea of putting the emergency declaration on Tuesday’s agenda. The vote was 4-1. McElvain was concerned the declaration would tarnish the city’s reputation and hinder its ability to draw new business.
“It is not his decision on whether we should move forward. . . . If he doesn’t vote for it, he is not giving the opportunity for the community to speak their peace,” Rullman said.
Redding Chamber of Commerce President Jake Mangas was more reserved when I spoke to him about Tuesday’s meeting.
Mangas wouldn’t take a stand on whether the city should declare a fiscal emergency, though he will be at Tuesday’s meeting and may decide to speak.
Before the chamber and its PAC take a position, the business group wants to know that the city has done everything to find the money to fund the needs of the community, Mangas said.
“We haven’t had that question answered yet,” he said.
The chamber’s PAC will meet Wednesday, at which time the group will discuss the events of the previous night.
“I think where I am at right now is that we do not know what the plan is if a fiscal emergency is declared,” Mangas said. “Before the chamber were to take a position on that, we would like to see what the plan is for revenue that would be coming from a sales-tax increase. Short of that, it would be hard to be wholeheartedly one way or another on the matter.”
Finally, Rullman believes that there is a correlation between Shasta County at 7.25 percent having one of the lowest sales tax rates in the state and the area’s crime problems. In other words, you get what you pay for.
“Redding, in my opinion, is becoming a laughing stock of the criminal element,” Rullman said. “They laugh at us because we can’t fix it. I think it’s a slap in the entire community’s face.”
Tuesday’s night’s council meeting starts at 6.
Merchants Crime Watch update
The Redding Merchants Crime Watch hasn’t met since last fall and there is no specific date to reconvene.
The group, established in 2011, hasn’t disbanded, though.
More: Chief reiterates need for citizens’ academy at merchants meeting
“I haven’t scheduled anything yet and there are a couple reasons why, I am not comfortable yet with bringing the group together because I don’t know what direction to go with it, and nobody has really asked me to deal with a specific topic,” said co-founder Ed Rullman, a managing partner at the Best Western Plus Hilltop Inn and C.R. Gibbs American Grille. “It hasn’t gone away but it hasn’t been very vocal.”
Rullman, however, does think the group will meet sometime after Tuesday’s City Council meeting, probably in the next 30 to 45 days.
BBC comes to the North State
The cast and crew of “Top Gear” came to the North State last summer to film an episode of the high-octane TV show that airs Sunday at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. on BBC America.
The Top Gear crew contacted Speropictures, a Redding-based company, and the local company took the crew around scouting potential sites to film. The show eventually hired Speropictures to do production service.
“It was extraordinary,” said Speropictures’ Matt Thayer, who owns the company with his wife, Joy. “They were just so much fun, really, really amazing.”
The show was one of 24 productions shot in the North State in 2017, a record number and up from five in 2016. The entire shoot was done in mid-July over the course of six days.
“They go all over the world and so they have about 60 people on their crew that they fly in,” Thayer said. “When it comes to the local areas, they need a production service on the ground. So we handled a lot of location scouting.”
Speropictures also lined up 22 RVs to house the crew in Trinity County during filming.
The Shasta County Film Commission emailed a clip from the show. Matt Thayer said the featured clip was filmed around Hayfork in Trinity County.
More: Film, TV industry helps boost Shasta County economy in 2017
Sunday’s story line has the cast looking for the elusive Big Foot.
“Top Gear” is hosted by Matt LeBlanc of “Friends” fame.
BBC America is on Spectrum-Charter, Dish and DirecTV.
Reporter David Benda can be reached at 225-8219 or david.benda@redding.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS.
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