THE ELECTION IS OVER: ONWARD WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!
The dust has settled, the voters have spoken, and another election is over here in Cathedral City.
While voters returned incumbent mayor Kathleen DeRosa, incumbent councilmember Chuck Vasquez, and I to our seats on the City Council, they decisively rejected -by more a than two-to-one margin- Measure Q, a proposed sales tax hike that would have raised the levy on sales in Cathedral City by nearly ten percent.
As the only councilmember who opposed Measure Q, I am gratified that the majority of Cathedral City voters shared my view that a sales tax hike would have penalized both residents and businesses alike, putting Cathedral City at a permanent competitive disadvantage. However, the fact remains that Cathedral City does need to enhance its revenue.
Measure Q’s failure needs to be a wake-up call to the City that we must push aggressively forward on projects now in the pipeline that will enhance our municipal bottom line. We must redouble our efforts to surmount the final hurtles that stand in the way of our Sheraton Desert Cove resort project, and in the way of the downtown boutique hotel project. Those two projects alone have the potential to bring in more than $2m to the City’s coffers annually. We have no excuse now for not being proactive.
We need to be equally proactive in setting the groundwork for development north of Interstate 10. Having brokered a compromise that strikes an adequate balance between conserving fragile desert ecosystems and allowing for crucial economic development, I believe there is no time like the present to get going with development. Our long-term prosperity lies in creating synergies for success in our northern frontier.
Our future is an exciting one, if we have the gumption to make it so.
While voters returned incumbent mayor Kathleen DeRosa, incumbent councilmember Chuck Vasquez, and I to our seats on the City Council, they decisively rejected -by more a than two-to-one margin- Measure Q, a proposed sales tax hike that would have raised the levy on sales in Cathedral City by nearly ten percent.
As the only councilmember who opposed Measure Q, I am gratified that the majority of Cathedral City voters shared my view that a sales tax hike would have penalized both residents and businesses alike, putting Cathedral City at a permanent competitive disadvantage. However, the fact remains that Cathedral City does need to enhance its revenue.
Measure Q’s failure needs to be a wake-up call to the City that we must push aggressively forward on projects now in the pipeline that will enhance our municipal bottom line. We must redouble our efforts to surmount the final hurtles that stand in the way of our Sheraton Desert Cove resort project, and in the way of the downtown boutique hotel project. Those two projects alone have the potential to bring in more than $2m to the City’s coffers annually. We have no excuse now for not being proactive.
We need to be equally proactive in setting the groundwork for development north of Interstate 10. Having brokered a compromise that strikes an adequate balance between conserving fragile desert ecosystems and allowing for crucial economic development, I believe there is no time like the present to get going with development. Our long-term prosperity lies in creating synergies for success in our northern frontier.
Our future is an exciting one, if we have the gumption to make it so.
posted by Paul S. Marchand | 8:52 PM
1 Comments:
Congrats, Paul, and kudos on a job clearly well done.
-Tom Wood
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