Manteca collected more than $2 million in special taxes in the last fiscal year with the bulk of it going to maintain common landscaping  and a number of parks in post-1998 residential neighborhoods.

The City Council last month approved a state required annual report that reflects special local taxes, in this case, community facilities districts  (CFD), that jurisdictions collect.

The report was for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024.

Even if you are not paying the special assessments also known as Mello-Roos taxes on your home, it impacts you.

The taxes started being required as a condition of new subdivisions in the late 1990s to avoid the city having to use general fund money to maintain common landscaping areas such as at the entrance to tract home developments.

By 2003, the city was requiring park maintenance in new neighborhoods to be paid by those owning the homes connected with the subdivision where the park was put in place.

The taxes pay for ongoing maintenance costs such as labor, water, and some replacement of improvements when they wear out or damaged.

Since the cost is 100 percent covered by the CFD, those parks have a higher level of maintenance than the pre-1998 neighborhood parks.

Those pre-1998 parks are maintained with general fund dollars.

They are essentially competing with police, fire, street upkeep and such for general fund revenue generated primarily by property taxes, sales taxes, and hotel room taxes.

The bottom line is the CFDs mean the older parks aren’t competing with newer parks for maintenance dollars.

Around 2010, the city started adding street light operation and maintenance costs in new CFDs that were formed for proposed subdivisions. That assessment covers electricity, light replacement, and sets aside funds for other repairs.

Three years ago, the city added assessments for police and fire as well as set asides to perform street maintenance work when the need arrives as it applies to the neighborhood where the homes are located that pay into a specific CFD.

There are a number of CFDs in Manteca. They only cover what was required at the time they were formed.

As an example, one formed in 2000 would only cover common landscaping areas.

Several years later, new CFDs had the park maintenance requirement added.

The police, fire, and street assessments were applied just several years ago to new projects that were up for approval.

That said, because the bulk of the homes now being built in Manteca were approved prior to the public safety and street requirement being adopted those homeowners are not paying enhanced CFD fees.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com