To counter ‘crime and homelessness coming from neighboring communities,’ Clovis moves forward on safety tax

Clovis residents will vote on a measure that will increase taxes to address public safety and service needs this November.

The Clovis City Council voted unanimously to place the City of Clovis Public Safety/City Services Measure on the November 2024 ballot at its meeting on Monday.

If passed, the measure would impose a 1% local sales tax until ended by voters, creating a stable source of locally controlled funds to address public safety and top community concerns.

The measure made it to the November ballot following significant community engagement with local residents, according to a city news release. The City of Clovis received over 1,000 community surveys from residents detailing service priorities.

The top priorities for Clovis residents are maintaining 9-1-1 emergency medical, police, and fire response.

“Clovis is the safest city in the Valley and a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” said Clovis City Manager John Holt. “But our community is facing new and growing challenges from crime and homelessness coming from neighboring communities, increasing potholes on local streets and roads, and increasing costs of providing basic services. This measure will help maintain our Clovis way of life.”

Other resident priorities included keeping public areas safe and clean, retaining local small businesses and jobs, and maintaining the city’s long-term financial stability.

“We had a choice of making further cuts to local services that could more severely impact our local quality of life, or to give our voters the opportunity to consider providing our community with local funding that the state cannot touch,” said Clovis City Manager John Holt. “With today’s action, the council has elected to allow the community to decide. We encourage all eligible Clovis residents to vote in the upcoming November election.”

The Clovis Public Safety/City Services Measure includes strict fiscal accountability provisions, public disclosure of spending, and yearly independent financial audits.

Funds cannot be taken by the county, state, or federal governments and can only be used for local services.

If approved by voters, the new Clovis sales tax would bring the city’s overall sales and use tax rate would limb to 8.975%, tying Clovis with seven other cities — Coalinga, Fowler, Huron, Kerman, Kingsburg and Parlier — with the second-highest tax rates in Fresno County, reported Fresnoland . Reedley and Mendota have the highest sales tax in Fresno County at 9.225% each.