The proposed update would not change California’s basic sales-tax exemptions.

Items and expenses generally not subject to sales tax include:

• Utilities (power, water, sewer, etc.)

• Most groceries

• Prescription medications

• Most medical devices

• Rent

• Mortgage payments

• Medical and dental appointments

• Many personal and professional services

• Qualifying purchases made with EBT benefits

Sales tax is paid by commuters, visitors, residents, and others who make taxable purchases in Fairfield.

This means some Measure P revenue is generated by people who live outside Fairfield but shop, dine, or conduct business within the city.

City budget presentation materials identify cost-cutting options if revenues do not keep pace with expenses.

Without additional revenue, future reductions could include:

• Fewer neighborhood police patrols

• Less capacity for homelessness response

• Fire station brownouts

• Deferred street and facility maintenance

• Reduced parks and recreation services

• Fewer community events

• Depletion of reserves that would put Fairfield’s future at risk

These are planning scenarios rather than automatic outcomes. Actual budget decisions would be made through the City’s public budget process.

Rapidly rising operational costs are threatening services—such as increases in fuel costs, insurance premiums, and cybersecurity systems. While City revenue has remained steady, it simply has not kept pace with inflation-driven expenses.

Yes, aggressively. City leadership has done its part and exhausted internal options to shield residents from service reductions. To save money, the City has proactively:

• Frozen 24.5 vacant city positions to keep administrative payroll down.

• Cut internal operational expenses across all city departments.

• Withheld cost of living pay raises for all City employees for the last two consecutive years.

The City has trimmed all available internal fat. There is no way to close the remaining $12 million gap without cutting some public services.

Measure P is protected by the California Constitution. By law, 100% of the funds must stay local to serve Fairfield—the State of California is legally barred from taking a single penny of it. Furthermore, taxes collected under Measure P are overseen by a Citizen Oversight Committee made up of Fairfield residents. It also requires independent annual financial audits to verify exactly how every dollar is spent.

More information on Citizen Oversight can be found on the City’s website at www.fairfield.ca.gov/measurep

Yes. Because it is a sales tax, anyone who visits Fairfield to shop, dine, buy gas, or do business helps fund our infrastructure and emergency services.

This ensures travelers passing through Fairfield along I-80 who stop for gas or fast food, pay their fair share for using our roads and public safety resources.

This ensures residents do not shoulder the entire financial burden.