City of Bell Gardens Financial Basics
The City of Bell Gardens utilizes its main operating fund, called the General Fund, to pay for important essential services that residents use every day. These services include police and fire protection, libraries, fixing streets and potholes, maintaining parks, running recreation programs, cleaning up graffiti and all other day-to-day operations of the City. The money in the General Fund comes from diverse revenue streams such as sales tax and property tax, with sales tax providing a large amount of the money used for City services. A major source of sales tax revenue for Bell Gardens are the Marketplace, Los Jardines and Village Square shopping centers, and most shoppers are non-residents, meaning a significant portion of sales taxes paid in Bell Gardens is contributed by those who live outside the City.

The Parkwest Bicycle Casino is a major taxpayer in the City that generates over $17,000,000 a year in revenues for the City, or over 40% of the City General Fund budget of approximately $50,000,000. The General Fund provides the resources that support parks and recreation programming and the police budget. Casino Revenues provide a significant additional boost to the City’s budget, enabling the City to offer extensive programming. Unfortunately, the Attorney-General for the State of California has ruled that significant operations at the Parkwest Bicycle Casino are no longer allowed. This determination could reduce Casino Revenues to the City by up to 30%. Such a reduction would have a drastic reduction in City revenues and create significant risks to ongoing operations.

On February 23, 2026, the Bell Gardens City Council unanimously adopted a resolution declaring a Fiscal Emergency over the impacts of the Attorney-General’s decision. They also took action to adopt a resolution calling an election for June 2, 2026 to hold a vote to add a quarter cent sales tax in the City of Bell Gardens. Voters will be presented with an option to vote on the sales tax (also known as a Transaction and Use Tax or TUT) on the June 2, 2026 ballot.

Understanding the Bell Gardens 10.50% Sales Tax Rate
The total sales tax rate in Bell Gardens is currently 10.50%. This tax is divided among the state, the county, special districts and the City itself. Of the current 10.50% total rate, the City of Bell Gardens only receives 1.75% for local control. The proceeds of the total sales tax rate are allocated as follows:

• 6% goes to the State of California for state programs, with the City having no control over this amount or how the money is spent.

•  2.75% goes to Los Angeles County for services like transportation and housing assistance, with the City having no say in this amount or its expenditure.

•  1.75% goes directly to the City of Bell Gardens and into the General Fund to pay for local services such as public safety, fixing streets, libraries, parks, and general City operations. 

The state and county portions of the tax are set by law and do not stay in Bell Gardens.

The Critical Last Remaining ¼ Cent
After the last election in 2024, the total allowable sales tax rate in Los Angeles County became capped at 10.75%. Since the Bell Gardens current rate is 10.50%, this means there is still a ¼-cent (0.25%) of sales tax space left before the cap is reached. This remaining capacity could be claimed by Bell Gardens, the County, or another regional agency.

Why Local Control is Important Now
Los Angeles County is planning to put a ½-cent sales tax measure on the June 2026 ballot. This action is a strong reminder that the City of Bell Gardens has a narrow window of opportunity to protect its sales tax capacity.

If the County or another taxing agency takes that last ¼ cent of available sales tax capacity, the money will not stay in Bell Gardens to pay for local, quality-of-life services; it will be allocated to the County to fund County-wide operations. The City may permanently lose access to this potential local revenue source.

To prevent the potential loss of a local revenue source, and to address the potential immediate loss in revenue from casino gaming operations due to the Attorney General’s recent action, Bell Gardens is placing its own sales tax measure on the June 2026 ballot to ensure that the last ¼ cent of capacity stays local and is allocated for Bell Gardens residents. Projected estimates note that claiming this ¼-cent would raise around $1.2 million annually in revenue. The goal for the ¼-cent sales tax is to keep the funding under local control and directly support and maintain key City services.