The Goleta City Council establishes a two-year budget. This spring, the Council and staff will be working to create a budget package that represents the values and priorities identified by the City Council. Their priorities include a commitment to keeping Goleta safe, providing opportunities for economic development, protecting our natural resources and maintaining the quality of life our residents have come to enjoy. Goleta’s finances are looking better than the previous two years for several reasons. The first is that hotel stays have increased, and this has generated additional revenue through the transient occupancy tax (TOT) collected. A new hotel is also contributing to an increase in the TOT. Second, the TOT rate increased from 10% to 12% on January 1, 2013. Finally, the City now retains 100% of the TOT collected. The City also receives a higher percentage of sales tax, although sales and property taxes continue to be shared with the County. You can provide input to the Council on how the 2013-14 and 2014-15 budgets are shaped. The Council will hold a budget workshop on April 22nd and will continue to discuss it during its regularly scheduled meetings in April and May. Final adoption will occur by June 30th in order to meet state requirements.