Discovery Bay voters chose last year to raise the annual spending limit for street lighting and landscaping, and this year, voters will decide whether to keep it that way for the next four years with Measure S.
The measure would keep the ceiling at $715,000 through 2011-12 without raising taxes in the town. Because the measure doesn't raise taxes, town manager Virgil Koehne said there hasn't been any opposition.
"It's a non-financial type of a thing," Koehne said, "so most people don't get too excited about that — when there's no monetary impact involved."
One percent of property taxes from a section of Discovery Bay commonly known as Discovery Bay proper is reimbursed to the town for street lighting and landscaping in that sector, Koehne said.
The limit was increased to $600,000 in 2000 under Measure W, and remained in place until 2004. By then, the responsibility for changing the amount was transferred from the county to the town, but the limit wasn't altered until last year.
"At the time we took over, we were not aware of the issue," Koehne said. "It was at a later date that we had to backtrack and get some of these things squared away."
Any unused funds are put aside for future projects.
"We're currently just doing some enhancements, and in the process of designing a nearly 1,000-square-foot landscape area on Willow Lake Road near Discovery Bay Elementary school," Koehne said. "We're also looking at adding Advertisementsome (amenities) to a few parks."
Koehne said the town sought an increase in the appropriations limit because of the rise in home values in the early part of the decade. But the recent slide in home values will likely net the town less money this year, he said. Current market conditions mean the spending limit could remain in place for more than four years.
"Housing markets are declining, so we will probably never see (the limit) for a few years," Koehne said.
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