Voters in Lassen may see another tax proposal on November’s ballot.

SHARE NOW

The supervisors entertained a discussion on presenting an increase to the sales and use tax in an effort to bolster law enforcement in the county, as brought to the table by District 1 supervisor Chris Gallagher.

The supervisors and CAO Richard Egan weighed two options to present to the county voters: a 1% increase limited to the county’s unincorporated areas, excluding the city of Susanville, or a half percent increase across the board. The discussion included the likelihood of voter approval, considering past county tax increase proposals have failed by a significant majority, and whether to make the tax a general or special tax, which would carry differing voter thresholds to pass, and which percent increase would bring the most benefit. CAO Egan said the difference would be nearly half a million dollars based on sales data from 2023.

The county council stressed that “time is of the essence” as the board would have to go through proper administrative procedures to get the tax on the ballot this November.

It was determined to bring the discussion back to the board by the end of May or early June at the latest. The supervisors settled on exploring a 1% increase for the unincorporated parts of the county.

Lassen’s sales tax currently sits at the lowest in the state at 7.25%