Want more city services without paying more taxes?

No problem.

Just stop shopping online.

Nationally, 19.7 percent of all retail sales are online.

Given Manteca is home to an Amazon Prime distribution center for 2-hour delivery plus there are another eight fulfillment centers within 30 miles, the odds are consumers here are easily hitting the 20 percent threshold.

Toss in the fact a lot of Manteca residents work in the promised land of tech just over the hill, the odds are a lot of people probably shop by order apps significantly north of 20 percent.

Why does this matter?

Property and sales tax account for the lion’s share of the City of Manteca’s $73 million general fund budget that underwrites day-to-day services such as police and fire protection as well as street upkeep.

If online shopping didn’t exist, it is not too big of a stretch to expect what sales tax is now going into the bank account of other cities that have distribution centers where orders are fulfilled to flow into Manteca’s coffers.

That translates into roughly $3.6 million a year.

For anybody doing bean counting, that would allow Manteca to hire nine firefighters and staff a sixth station 24/7, plus have $2 million left over a year to go towards things such as roadwork.

So if we all stopped shopping online and shopped in Manteca that would improve the city’s bottom line by $3.6 million.

That’s not going to happen.

And the only way for the siphoning of sales taxes from all cities that don’t have fulfillment centers by cities that do to stop is for the California Legislature to remedy the situation.

The odds of Sacramento taking action any time soon?

Look at it this way: These are the same people killing off fossil fuel vehicles by government decree.

In doing so, they are slowly killing off gas taxes and refinery “fees” that not only underwrite state highways and freeways as well as local road maintenance plus public transit but also help to underwrite various green initiatives.

Electric vehicles in California last year accounts for 25 percent of all new car and light truck sales. It is a matter of time for the well to run dry.

Meanwhile, the legislature acts as if there isn’t a ticking budget time bomb.

Sound convoluted?

We’re just getting started.

How did Manteca start to dig the hole it is now in?

You will not like the answer.

It’s called can kicking.

Go back 20, 30, or 40 years.

What do you think happened almost every time the obvious was made clear to elected officials?

They hemmed and hawed.

And If they managed to work up the courage to voice the need for a tax increase and mentioned the possibility out-loud, the torch and tar crowd kicked down the council chamber doors.

Trial balloon after trial balloon was quickly popped over the years.

Sometimes developers pulled out the pin. Other times it was residents.

There even were elected council members who openly refused to “tax future residents” to the point they delayed the formation of community facilities districts for new developments for years.

Others council members in the past blocked the implementation of a hotel room tax to impose a hotel room tax for years.

The reason? The room guests had no say in being taxed.

Forget the fact it has long been normal for other cities it charge such tax of hotel guests meaning Manteca residents paid them when they traveled.

Manteca was also a Johnny-Come-Lately to impose community facilities districts.

Then there were officials refusing to increase fees for services during election years.

Along the way there were plenty of false starts.

Money would be spent on a consultant or a plan. Then once the cost of implementing a project was made clear they wouldn’t just get cool feet; they would go into deep freeze.

When pressed by residents about whether they were going to go forward, they’d say they’d apply for grants or find money elsewhere.

Of course, every other city is looking for a Daddy Warbucks.

The best way to explain it is the library.

Back in 2002, the city was pressed by residents to build a new library.

It was built in 1963 and expanded over a decade later to eventually serve a community of 40,000.

Manteca is today at 91,000 and counting. We still have the same library.

The City Council at the time formed a citizens advisory committee.

The developer of Heritage Ranch — the neighborhood around Joshua Cowell School — even paid a library fee for each home for a total of $180,000.

The money was used to devise specific plans for a 60,000-square-foot, two-story state-of-the-art learning center complete with maker space.

A temporary building was proposed to house a temporary building on the tennis courts that would ultimately be turned into additional parking.

Manteca applied twice for state library bond money.

Each time the city just missed the cut.

So what did the council at the time do regarding a project they were all in to pursue?

They refused to keep the library fee in place to collect funds toward building a new library.

When they couldn’t get someone else to pay for it, they dropped the library project quicker than you can kick a can.

They wanted a free lunch.

Then there was fretting away $11.7 million in bonus bucks once assessed on new growth assuring sewer allocation certainty that they proposed would be spent on community amenities.

They used it to plug holes in the general fund budget.

It made them heroes because they avoided the need to impose higher fees or ask voters for higher taxes.

It was can kicking on steroids.

This is all ancient history.

In recent years the ship, so to speak, is being righted by a cultural shift at city hall.

There is a sincere effort underway to stop kicking the can.

If for no other reason, it is because there is no more road to kick the can down.

And do not misunderstand. There was a lot of things Manteca’s past leadership got right. Long-term revenue to run the city wasn’t one of them.

Blame the current council all you want.

But Manteca is where it is because of a lack of political courage and a lot of people hammering elected leaders at the first utterance of the words “tax increase.”

Vote against what is suggested.

But don’t blame the messengers.

They weren’t the ones kicking the can.

They are the ones that want to end the game.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com