On November 12, 2024, a Special Joint Meeting of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and the Measure X Community Advisory Board was held. In this session, they reviewed the allocations of funds and requests for future funds moving forward. The entire meeting was over 9 hours long with a morning session dedicated to an overview of Measure X along with presentations from departments who were allocated funds. The afternoon session was for the Board of Supervisors to discuss financial updates, consider new allocation requests, and vote.
Measure X is a half-cent sales tax implemented countywide in Contra Costa County. It was placed on the November 2020 ballot by the Board of Supervisors to generate local funds for local priorities. The measure was approved by voters on November 3, 2020 and raises about $120 million annually to support various county services. The Measure X tax is a 0.5% charge on taxable purchases, with exemptions for most groceries, prescription drugs, and certain medical devices.
Agencies who monitor and manage Measure X funds gave presentations and updates about their different programs. These agencies range from Measure X Community Fiscal Oversight Committee, Animal Services, CCC Fire Protection District, Clerk Recorder-Elections, Conservation and Development, County Administration, Employment and Human Services, Health Services, Library, Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, Probation, Public Defender, Public Works, Sheriff/Coroner, and the Measure X Community Advisory Board. Majority of the presentation was to request to reallocate budget surplus funds for other parts of their projects. Many of them showed the highlights and achievements that Measure X has done.
The request in the presentations exceed $28.4 million but another number of $8.9M was scattered in all the documents. Adam Nguyen, the county finance director, clarified that there is a budget surplus of $8,982,841. He said, “If we are recapping the various proposals, it’s worth noting that there is a mix in here. Some of these are to repurpose existing dollars and not asking to receive new funding from the surplus. There are new requests that come that start to dig into the surplus.”
Several council members raised concerns about how best to use the surplus. None of them disagreed with the reallocation of funds. New allocations that were introduced were items like $3.75M for the maintenance of Veterans’ Hall and $1.2M for repair of the Schroder Bridge over the Iron Horse Trail.
A motion to approve the reallocation of unused funds and new allocations that utilize the budget surplus was made by John Gioia and seconded by Diane Burgis. This motion was approved unanimously. Overall, the new allocations totaled $7.4M and left $1.76M unallocated at this time.
