(July 10)  Two months after the Upland City Council agreed to spend $27,000 to survey residents about their willingness to impose on themselves a half-cent sales tax to assist the city government in staving off future budget deficits, the Sentinel has learned that voters  surveyed were decidely against raising taxes and were similarly unenthusiastic about increasing the city’s business license fees.
The council had also authorized, at the same time it approved the $27,000 expenditure for the survey, to expend $48,000 on a public relations program aimed at “educating” residents about ideas put forth by a specially-formed task force that considered possible solutions to the city’s financial challenges.
One of the options delineated by the task force earlier this year included the sales tax proposal.  Taxes, however must be approved by voters to go into effect.
Given the outcome of the survey, it is not clear at this point whether the city will want to proceed with the public relations campaign, which was to be handled by the 20/20 Network, a communications firm  headed by Steve Lambert and Tim Gallagher specializing in media and community relations and crisis management. Lambert is the former editor of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Upland.