The Auburn City Council spent the majority of their meeting last night discussing the need to increase the city sales tax by one penny to support the need to keep police and fire coverage in the city over the future two or three years as they are now. The look forward to get this tax passed in the November election was examined in detail and the discussion by council members took the emphasis to getting much more detail on producing a plan that details how the money would be spent, and identification of items that tax income would be funding. Also questions to staff to present the effect on the city and residents to be more detailed, like impact on each resident yearly which is estimated to be about $100 per household. Also, what % of the sales tax comes from outside the city like visitors to Old Town and other venues. Staff is also asked to determine the financial hit to the city if the measure files. It also was pointed out there needs to be an oversight committee of non-political people that first can manage the process of getting a final decision to the position of being on the ballot for the November election. This includes the language that would appear on the ballot, then the distribution of information to all voters informing them of the actual detail of the impact, and expectation of the increased revenue. The Council also needs to decide which type of sales tax they will go forward with, Special or General. Special sets up specific channels the tax money must go with no exception and requires 2/3 yes vote to pass. A general tax specifies the intended path the money would be spent, however, since the revenue gets deposited into the General Fund the current or future Councils could redirect the money into other determined needs. This General Tax only requires a 50% plus one vote to pass. All this work must be ready for the Council to review and hopefully make decision at the next scheduled meeting in two weeks.