Four years after Ontario’s voters passed a one-cent-per dollar sales tax override, the city council this week moved to put another half-cent sales tax increase on the November 3 ballot.
That action came despite Ontario’s existing ranking as the most economically well-situated municipality in San Bernardino County.
The move raised ire among a contingent of the city’s residents, who took note of multiple considerations, which they said the four members of the city council who supported raising taxes on their constituents had disregarded.
The city council considered the item calling upon the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office to place the measure on the ballot at a specially-called meeting held on Friday, August 7 just ahead of the registrar’s deadline to finalize the ballot that will be considered by the county’s voters in November. The August 7 meeting was attended by Mayor Paul Leon and councilwomen Debra Dorst-Porada and Daisy Macias and Councilman Jim Bowman. Councilman Alan Wapner was absent from the meeting, which was held on the last day the county registrar of voters would accept a ballot measure request from a city.
Voters will decide if they want to increase the sales tax within the city just four years after approving Measure Q, a previous sales tax increase of 1 percent in 2022, which raised the sales tax from 7.75 percent to 8.75 percent.
If approved by voters, the measure will increase the sales tax paid by customers at Ontario’s retail establishments from the current 8.75 percent to 9.25 percent. At present, Ontario, along with Chino, Fort Irwin, Landers, Mentone, Yucca Valley, Adelanto, Bloomington Barstow, Apple Valley, Rialto, Redlands, San Bernardino and Fontana among cities, incorporated towns and unincorporated towns in San Bernardino County impose an 8.75 percent sales tax within their boundaries. Only neighboring Montclair, with its 9 percent sales tax, and Wrightwood, with its 9.75 percent sales tax which has come about as a result of being located in two counties – Los Angeles and San Bernardino – simultaneously, have higher sales tax than Ontario. If the voters pass the measure the council approved for the ballot in November, Ontario’s 9.25 percent sales tax will exceed that of Montclair, making it the city in San Bernardino County with the highest sales tax.
In California the basic state sales tax rate is 6.0 percent. Counties and cities, as well as agencies and districts are able to impose sales tax increases within the boundaries of their jurisdictions, pursuant to a majority of voters within those jurisdictions agreeing to the increase. For this reason, the sales tax rate in California can vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
The Ontario City Council’s August 7 action angered a cross section of the city’s residents. They noted that the city remunerates its employees at rate well above those in all other cities in the county, that Ontario has an annual budget that is hands down the largest in the county at $1.2 billion running through all of its municipal funds, such that Ontario officials have at their disposal more than the combined totals of funding enjoyed by the two cities that have the next two largest budgets in San Bernardino County. The politicians that voted to put the measure on the ballot, those city residents critical of the sales tax increase it would impose said, are supported by the employee unions, and were thus seeking to transfer to the city’s residents, even more of the burden of paying city employees’ inflated salaries. The members of the city do not have the courage or the character to stand up to the city employee unions by seeking to impose on municipal employees pay cuts or pay freezes before going to the option of increasing the tax burden on city residents, the measure’s opponents said.
The residents opposing the sales tax proposal noted that city residents had approved Measure Q, the 2022 one cent sales tax override, and that representations made by the city at that time were that the revenue from that measure would redress the financial issues Measure Q’s proponents, including city officials, said the city was facing.
In 2022, with the amount of money progressing through all of Ontario’s municipal funds approach $1 billion, city officials said the Measure Q one-cent-per dollar sales tax add-on would generate another $89 million per year in revenue. According to the city, however, now that the sales tax add-on contained in Measure Q is in place, it is generating $60 million for the city annually.
City officials are not above making false claims in supporting their proposals, according to those opposed to the latest sales tax increase measure, and just as those city officials made phony claims about Measure Q in 2022, they are doing so with the current measure.
A case in point, Ontario residents pointed out, was Mayor Leon’s assertion he, and by extension the other three council members at the August 7 meeting, “didn’t vote to impose a tax. I voted to give the people an opportunity to vote on it. That’s their democratic right. Right?”
Leon, and the three members of the council, it was noted by the opponents of the current sales tax increase measure, did not also, at the August 7 meeting, place a measure on the ballot to rescind Measure Q, nor did Leon and the three members of the council place on the ballot a measure to substitute the half-cent sales tax for the one-cent sales tax imposed by Measure Q. By Leon’s logic, it was pointed out, the people have a right to the opportunity to vote on such proposals as well.
According to campaign literature that was jointly distributed by the Leon, Bowman and Wapner campaigns in 2010, 2014 and 2018, those three, who referred to themselves as “Team Ontario,” were responsible for having guided Ontario with regard to its financial affairs to its enviable position as the most fiscally well-positioned city in San Bernardino County. Ontario residents who are now questioning the city’s need for additional sales tax revenue in 2026, many of whom questioned the need for Measure Q in 2022, want to know why City Hall is going hat in hand to the city’s residents for more money, if Team Ontario has done such a good job delivering the city into its vaunted position among San Bernardino County’s cities economically.
It was pointed out that Ontario, among San Bernardino County’s 22 cities and incorporated towns is nowhere near the top in terms of household income when ranking the financial position of its citizenry. Indeed, residents of Chino Hills, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Redlands, Chino, Fontana and Yucaipa all significantly outearn the residents of Ontario per capita or per family, while residents in Loma Linda and Rialto have incomes marginally better than those living in Ontario. With Ontario’s residents already staggering under the burden of the high cost of living throughout Southern California and the added sales tax the City of Ontario is already collecting, it is unconscionable that Leon, Bowman, Dorst-Porada and Macias are pushing them to increase that burden, the opponents of the tax measure say.
According to a City Council agenda report, if passed, the .5 percent additional sales tax will generate $32.5 million per year and will go into the city’s general fund.
The city of Ontario’s general fund, which covers City Hall’s operational expenses, for the now underway 2025/2026 fiscal year is $481.48 million.
Mayor Leon sought to defend placing the measure before the city’s voters, asserting that despite Ontario’s envious financial position as one of the dozen wealthiest of the State of California’s 483 municipalities, the city he oversees is still in a tenuous fiscal position.
“We have historically been looked at as the poor man of the Inland Empire’s western cities,” Leon said of Ontario. “Compared to Chino, Chino Hills, Rancho Cucamonga and even Fontana now, the attitude about us has been, ‘Oh, it’s just Ontario.’ That why we want to spend so much more improving its north community and central part, which for many, many years before me was neglected. I never had the votes to make those improvements because we now know the south-center of the city was on full neglect, as is the northeast. The upgrading of the city, which has most of our stock in the old part of town, cost a lot just to redo. The infrastructure has been there for over 100 years, in fact over 125 years. We are ahead of the curve in repairs but behind in in upgrades. “
Leon said he and the rest of the council did not disregard the wishes or sentiment of the city’s residents in putting the latest tax override measure before them in November.
“My real concern is what the people want,” Leon said, indicating he will allow the residents to make up their own minds as to whether they want to up the amount of sales tax they pay on a daily basis or not. “I guarantee you, I’m not going to be campaigning for a tax increase. I will be promoting the equalization of the entire city so that Ontario Ranch doesn’t get all of the goods and the old city remains untouched in the neighborhood. There are massive drainage issues and flooding every year in the north neighborhoods., There are dark streets with no streetlights. There are kids who walk through raging rivers trying to get to school. Every park is in dire need of upgrades, as are streets an gutters. That isn’t cheap to fix, and I’ll make it happen one way or the other. Would it be easier with more money? Yes, but if the people don’t want the tax, then there’s going to be some serious readjustment of our budget”
Leon explained by he did not couple the upcoming measure with a measure to rescind the one cent-per-dollar sales tax add-on contained in Measure Q or a measure to substitute the half-cent sales tax for the one-cent sales tax embodied in Measure Q, in so doing seeming to indicate that he is personally, if not publicly, in favor of upping the sales tax rate.
“I did not put anything on the ballot that would make it even more difficult to sustain a real effort to upgrade the old city,” he said. “Just the infrastructure alone is immense. It’s hard to give up money and ask for new money when it’s the same amount of money. If I was doing it like you say, it would’ve been better to just leave it alone, right?
Leon asserted, “I didn’t do this, by the way. I didn’t bring it forward. Staff brought it forward as a way to match the need., I simply continue to state if people want to see the city improve quickly, then they can make the choice. I did not want to stand in the way of that.”
Leon further posited that the tax will hurt outsiders more than it will city residents, since Ontario has such a dynamic commercial base that customers from throughout the region are coming to Ontario.
“Don’t forget 65 percent of every dollar is paid by outside people, that is, those who visit the city who do not live here. So, for 35 cents on the dollar, Ontario residents can make a lot of money for themselves. I’m not promoting it. I’m not downgrading it. I just simply left it in the hands of the people and I’m not making any arguments to them either way.”
Chris Robles, who was formerly the chairman of the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee and has more recently taken up the role of a grassroots activist leading a push for social change in the city calling itself FairOntario, told the council on August 7, “You’re basically saying we don’t care about residents and we don’t care to tell people about how the finances of the city are used. You have wasted all the money with Measure Q and that’s why you’re putting more money on the ballot.” He told the council it was asking the city’s resident to risk “putting more money in your hands blindly with no guarantee that the people are going to get any of the money.”
Ted Burnett counseled the council to “spend more time on the things that matter to Ontario residents, such as the air quality. I’m not against you continuing to do things for special interests, but special interest is the people of District 4 that don’t have a community center. You invested all this money everywhere else building community centers. I want you to concentrate on something and be good stewards of the money you currently have.”
Tina Silva told the council members that “before asking working families to pay more, the city should demonstrate a thorough financial review and that it has exhausted spending alternatives.”
John Sackrison, the executive director of the Inland Empire Automobile Dealers Association, warned that by upping sales tax to be charged in the city, the council was in danger of shooting itself in the foot, as the tax on big ticket items such as vehicles, machinery and large appliances can be substantial, and cautious buyers will find dealers, outlets and stores elsewhere which are not subject to add-on sales taxes and that will sell those items for the same price, so that they can save substantially on the outlays they are to make. He said Ontario had already made that mistake with Measure Q.
“Less than four years ago, Ontario increased its sales tax and now for every vehicle sold in the city it receives $1,000, which is more than double compared to 2022,” Sackrison said. “In these same four years, dealership profitability has dropped 40 percent.”
-Mark Gutglueck