Moorpark City Council tables discussion on 10% golf tax until next meeting
there times; font-size: 16px;”>By Debra Tash
sick times; font-size: 16px;”>At tonight’s Moorpark City Council staff proposed a golf tax to make up for a loss of revenue created when the State pulled the plug on the Redevelopment
Moorpark Country Club
Agencies. With $500,000 now directed into the Education Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) Moorpark is scrambling to fill gap. The council nixed a 1/4 cent sales tax earlier in the year due to a lack of public support. Now, as Mayor Parvin stated, “They asked staff to get creative.”
Moorpark has no hotel and therefore no way of collecting a Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) from visitors. They could consider increasing fees for business licenses or a new property tax assessment. They can do that or face staff reductions or lowering park maintenance levels. To meet the shortfall staff suggested a 10% golf tax, a fee they said would be paid by the user not the business owner. The city of Palos Verdes has had such a tax in place for 20 years. Palos Verdes is one of only two cities in California with such a tax, the other being Half Moon Bay.
Norwood, an attorney for Moorpark Country Club, spoke at public comment. The Country Club would in effect be the only business penalized by this move. Due to competition outside the city, and the fact that golfing has dropped off since 2000, fees are dictated by a shrinking market. The club would be forced to subsidize the extra cost. It has operated in the red for the last three years. Their fees are at $120 for a morning round of golf on the weekend and $80 in the morning during the week. To be competitive they have had to offer deep discounts, using online third parties like Living Social. This tax could put them out of business.
Since staff had come up with this proposal on Friday, Moorpark Country Club had no time to prepare financial reports to support their assertion. Council Member Keith Millhouse motioned that they table the matter for two weeks, allowing the business time to gather all the data. Mayor Parvin seconded that motion and it was carried in a 5 to 0 vote.
Dr. Bernard Luskin, Moorpark College’s interim president, spoke at the beginning of the meeting. To help alleviate off site parking the college will now offer “Parking Scholarships” Residents adjacent to Moorpark have been complaining of students parking along the street when there is plenty of space onsite. The fees are set by the State: $50 for the fall/spring semesters and $25 for the summer semester. The Parking Scholarships will help low income students with those fees and hopefully get their parked cars off nearby streets.
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Debra Tash is Editor-in-Chief of Citizensjournal.us, past president for Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, business executive and award-winning author, residing in Somis
