Mayor’s Blog

Mayor’s Blog | Looking at 2022 | Dec. 6, 2022

Mayor Steve Martin

The year 2022 was a time for looking forward. After two years of dealing with the burden of COVID infections and their impacts on public health, city services, and civil discourse, we anticipated hopefully that this would be a year of physical, psychological, and financial healing. It was a time to remember what is “normal.” The new vaccines provided confidence that we would once again travel, visit, and enjoy each other’s company. The question which remained was “how realistic are our hopes?”

While much of the world struggled through the effects of Russia’s cruel war with Ukraine and political divisions in our own nation deepened, our city pulled together to maintain and enhance quality of life for our citizens. Visitors, held at bay by COVID restrictions, returned. We saw record-breaking revenues across all major tax sources (e.g., sales, property, TOT, business licenses). From FY’s 20-21 to 21-22, property tax realized a 5.1% increase to $12.3 million; sales tax, a 14.2% increase to $20.4 million; and TOT, a huge 37.4% increase, to $9.8 million. In total, General Fund tax revenue increased by 14.4% year over year, from $41.7 million to $47.6 million. These funds, along with recovery assets from state and federal government, enabled us to continue our mission to fulfill our primary goals: public safety, street repairs, and economic development.

Public safety progress included a new incentive program to attract police officers to bolster our law enforcement team, the initiation of construction of a new fire station, and the planning for a new police sub-station. We invested significant funds to help alleviate homeless and supported a county-wide coalition to make that happen.

Street repairs, supported by citizen-approved sales tax overrides, continued. Thanks to prudent work by our staff the city’s street repair schedule was accelerated by a full year. We received $17-million in Niblick Road improvement grants and $3-million for work on Creston Road. We also received $1.1 million in Community Betterments Competitive Grant funding for a North River Road Bike Connector and another grant for the Flamson Safe Route to School Safety Projects. The Golden Hills/Union Road roundabout got underway. When finished, this vital infrastructure project will handle more traffic, more safely, through this busy intersection.

In economic development, we created a new Utilities Division to streamline processes through our Community Services and Public Works departments, partnered with Atascadero to create a North County broadband strategy (paid for by a successful grant application) and renewed our relationship with TravelPaso (our tourism promotion agency). The passage of a 1% increase in the tax charged to those using our hotels will significantly increase tourism-related revenues to our General Fund which will lift a portion of the costs of city operations off the shoulders of residents. We engaged Cal Poly SLO in a joint effort to achieve spaceport licensure for our airport in 2023 and became the first community in California admitted into the Rural Innovation Network nationwide. We have begun work on a comprehensive update of our Economic Development Strategy which will be complete next year and adopted, for the first time, a city-wide federal and state legislative platform. This platform will improve our efforts to affect legislation affecting our city.

Other high points of 2022 include the successful completion of library plans for the first 5-year strategic planning period and new 5-year strategic plan for Recreation Services. We revitalized our Youth Commission. We brought back the 4th of July celebration, staging a full day of events culminating in a fireworks display at Barney Schwartz Park. Planning is underway now for New Years Eve celebration in the downtown city park.

As you can see, 2022 has been one of restoration and fiscal healing for our city. We can all be proud of the fact that so much has been accomplished by all our citizens to rebound from recent challenges. I want to thank you, our Council, our advisory bodies, and our staff for making this restoration possible. We all share in this success and the hope of continued prosperity and resiliency in the future.

Fast away the old year passes. I pray we all reflect on the blessings we have received and meditate on how we can use them as a platform to develop greater empathy and unity for ourselves, our families and our neighbors.

As always, it is an honor to serve as your Mayor and, again, I urge everyone to stay informed, stay involved and stay strong Paso Robles.