Duarte City Council Fails To Declare Fiscal Emergency

DUARTE (CBS) — The Duarte City Council failed to declare a fiscal emergency Tuesday night.

The decision was 4-1 in favor of declaring an emergency, but the rules say the vote has to be unanimous since it’s an emergency resolution. Councilman Phil Reyes was the lone opposing vote.

A proposed sales tax increase on the November 6th ballot was also rejected, which required a second, two-thirds vote by the council, according to City Manager Darrell George.

City officials said they had to raise the sales tax by 8.75 percent for six years because the state has taken at least $2 million from Duarte in redevelopment dollars since 2008 and has decided to dissolve redevelopment agencies, including the one that had generated $1 million annually for the San Gabriel Valley city.

KCAL9’s Dave Bryan asked Mayor John Fasana how close Duarte is to the budgetary cliff.

“We’re not close to going bankrupt, but at the same time, we want to make sure our revenues are balanced so we don’t become like the other cities that have those types of scares,” he said.