Mountain View is fortunate that its fiscal stewardship over the years has historically produced sufficient financial resources to maintain the high-quality services enjoyed by Mountain View residents today.

However, as with most municipalities, repairs, maintenance, and eventual replacement of facilities and infrastructure will continue to be an ongoing need in the future. In addition, new initiatives to address carbon neutrality, the evolving nature of transportation modes, and open space suitable for modern cities will also require additional financial resources.

To keep Mountain View resilient and prepared for the future, at the June 13, 2023 meeting, the City Council approved the Fiscal Years 2023-24 and 2024-25 Council Work Plan, which included a Priority A work plan project to “explore the feasibility of a potential 2024 revenue measure.”

On September 12, 2023, a Study Session was convened to review needs and interest in funding mechanisms that the council could consider. The Study Session provided the Council with an overview of the following: critical unfunded Mountain View priorities; regional and statewide ballot measures; existing Citywide revenues and rates; regional revenue rates and potential City revenue increases; and an overview of the revenue measure adoption process.

At the conclusion of the Study Session, the Council indicated support for exploring: 

1. Resident interest in a potential 2024 revenue measure.
   
   
2. Creating an Ad Hoc Committee consisting of Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak, Councilmember Lucas Ramirez, and Councilmember Emily Ann Ramos to review potential funding options. 
   
   
3. Focusing on several general tax options, including (50 + 1) revenue types like Transient Occupancy Tax and Utility User Tax (by utility type).

City Council Study Session on Potential Revenue Ballot Measure for 2024

From December 6, 2023 to April 19, 2024, the Ad Hoc Subcommittee met five times over five months and recommended that a survey be performed for amendments to increase the City's Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) (Chapter 33 of the Mountain View City Code) and Real Property Conveyance Tax (Article V, Chapter 29 of the Mountain View City Code), also known as a Property Transfer Tax (PTT).

On May 14, 2024, the City Council received a presentation of the initial results from the first of two statistically valid surveys and additional data regarding the types of property transactions that could be subject to an increase in the property transfer tax.

Summary of Survery Results presented to City Council

On June 25, 2024, the Mountain View City Council approved - by unanimous vote - the placement of a revenue measure on the ballot for the November 5, 2024 General Municipal Election.

City Council approving placement of revenue measure

The following are examples of some of the future needs that Mountain View will face:

• Public Safety – The provision of best-in-class public safety services has been, and will continue to be, of paramount importance for the City.
  
  The City’s public safety administration building and several of our firehouses will be reaching the end of their useful lives and require replacement or extensive renovations. For more than 20 years, the City has studied and discussed the need for constructing a new public safety administration building, which houses the police department, fire department administration, the emergency operations center, and the 9-1-1 emergency dispatch. The current building is antiquated and does not meet current seismic standards. The current estimate for a new building is approximately $200 million and growing.  
  
  
• Pedestrian/Cyclist Safety - Another major priority of the City is to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety and access, as well as traffic and railroad operational safety. The City is committed to improving safety in a variety of transit spaces including: cyclist and pedestrian safety; increasing safety measures around railroad crossings; and continuing to provide Safe Routes to Schools programs to help protect residents in Mountain View from road hazards.
  
  Mountain View has also partnered with VTA and Caltrain on the design of the Castro Street and Rengstorff Avenue Grade Separation Projects to improve safety, reduce noise, decrease traffic congestion and enhance traffic movement.  Construction of the Rengstorff grade separation project is expected to begin in 2026 with the Castro Street undercrossing to begin once there is sufficient funding.
  
  
• Parks/Open Space Access - The City currently has an open space goal to provide three acres of open space for every 1,000 residents. Based on current data, the City is expected to create, on average, one to two new parks per year through the year 2030. The overall park acreage will be growing with these future identified parks; however, there are specific planning areas within the city that are not reaching this goal currently and do not have identified funding. 
  
  The forthcoming Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan will identify funding strategies to meet the parks and open space needs of the future and is expected to require ongoing financial investments in the millions.  
  
  
• Carbon Neutrality Goals - As a leader in local climate action and in recognition of the serious threat of climate change, Mountain View is committed to achieving carbon neutrality. In 2020, in response to state, national and internal action on climate change, the City adopted a goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.
  
  The City of Mountain View was recently one of only 119 cities, states and regions across the globe to receive an “A” score from the Carbon Disclosure Project for our sustainability efforts and commitment to environmental transparency. However, a sustainable future with zero carbon emissions will require a significant funding plan.
  
  
• Affordable Housing - In addition, the City is and will continue to be a statewide leader in the development and preservation of affordable housing. The City was recently designated by the Governor and the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development as a “Prohousing Community.” Mountain View is the only city in Santa Clara County to achieve this designation and one of a few across California, which allows the City to receive additional funding from the State for affordable housing projects.
  
  The City has nine projects and three land dedications in the pipeline, totaling approximately 1,360 units. At this time, there is an estimated gap of approximately $50 million and growing to fully fund the affordable housing projects in the pipeline.

The City does not currently have the funding needed to address many of these needs. 

As a public service organization, the City’s primary expenditure is for the employment of staff to provide services to the community. Over the years, the City has been very judicious in the management of our human resources.

The chart below shows the City experienced a significant staffing decline between 2000 and 2012, necessitated by two recessions within the same decade. Over the past decade, the City has been rebuilding and increasing the number of employees who are necessary to meet the ongoing needs of our residents and address the significant workload. Notably, the City organization as of FY 2023-24 had just 37 more staff members than it did 23 years ago, or a 5.7% increase. In comparison, over this time period, the population of Mountain View grew from 70,708 to 86,535, or a 22.4% increase.

Two of the City’s largest sources of revenues are property tax (42.4%) and sales tax (13.3%), which account for almost 60% of total annual revenues. However, these revenues only represent a portion of the total tax paid by residents. The City receives $0.16 cents for every $1.00 dollar of property tax paid by residents. The City receives $0.01 cent for every $1.00 dollar of sales tax paid by residents.

The City has not been a frequent proposer of revenue ballot measures. In the last 50 years, the City has asked residents to consider a revenue ballot measure four (4) times.