Nearly a third of the City of Arcadia’s $57 mil. in revenue is generated as the result of local business.
In his State of the City address Thursday (Jan. 22, 2015) at the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Planning Conference, City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto detailed the breakdown of city revenues and expenses, noting that taxes represent the largest single source of revenue for the City, and the combined income from sales ($10.4 million) and hotel taxes ($3 million) account for 40% of all taxes ($13.4 million), even more than property taxes at 33%.
In addition to taxes, one of the next largest revenue generators is licenses and permits at $4.6 million, for combined total from businesses of $18 million.
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Among other highlights of Lazzaretto’s presentation:
- 52-cents of every dollar of your property tax goes to schools, nearly 26-cents directly to the Arcadia Unified School District, while less than a dime goes to the City of Arcadia.
- The City of Arcadia also gets only a penny of every sales dollar (1/9 of the 9% you pay on every product purchase)
- Restaurants Din Tai Fung dumpling house and Hai Di Lao hot pot, and lingerie shop Victoria’s Secret are among the top 25 sales tax producers in the City of Arcadia.
- Retail generates about double the sales tax overall than the dining/hotel category, with gas stations and auto dealers tied for third, although Rusnak Arcadia’s Mercedes-Benz is the only dealer (and although he didn’t say it, is known that the dealership is the single largest sales tax generator in the city).
- There are 9,231 licenses to operate business in the City of Arcadia, with 5,314 actually located in Arcadia, including 1,300 home business licenses. Nearly 4,000 are based outside Arcadia.
- On the heels of the dedication of the new four-story, 75,000 square-foot Hale Medical Center on Huntington Drive last year, several other major developments are underway:
— two three-story 19,000 square-foot office buildings under construction by Mike Soo on Colorado Place/Huntington Drive.
— the $30 million two-story Mercedes-Benz showroom on Santa Anita Avenue is scheduled for completion by end of 2015.
— two new multi-story Marriott-brand hotels (Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn) proposed to begin construction later this year to replace Santa Anita Inn on Huntington Drive.
— a mixed-use two-story development in final stages of approval by Dorn-Platz adjacent to 24 Hour Fitness on Wheeler Street at First Avenue featuring 38 residential units and 16,200 square-feet of ground-floor commercial units above two levels of underground parking.
— an approved major residential project by Walbern Development near the split of Live Oak and Las Tunas Avenues.
— a third Din Tai Fung dumpling house restaurant is coming to Arcadia in the Westfield Santa Anita mall. - Crime: Although some of it is attributed to new state law re-classifying some former felonies as misdemeanors, major crime in Arcadia was down dramatically last year from 1,655 in 2013 to 1,292 in 2014.
— Westfield Santa Anita mall accounts for 30% of all major crimes. - The city is considering limiting Arcadia Transit shuttle buses to only fixed routes rather than response to individual calls.
- A new city web site is coming soon at www.ArcadiaCa.gov that will be much more user-friendly and intuitive, and feature a large search option prominent on the main page.