EL MONTE >> Voters will decide in November whether or not to extend city’s current half-cent sales tax until 2029.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to place on the Nov. ballot an extension of Measure GG, which is currently set to end March 31, 2019.

Before they moved to place the tax extension on the ballot, council members also voted unanimously to declare a fiscal emergency, claiming that current city sales tax revenue is still below pre-Great Recession levels, according to a city staff report.

The city’s current budget deficit is about $4.7 million, which would double without the tax measure’s extension, City Manager Jesus Gomez said.

Residents who spoke vehemently against the move were upset that the cost of the special election would be $187,000 when the city could reduce that amount dramatically by consolidating the vote with the city’s 2018 general election.

“You want to spend $187,000 for a special election when you guys can do it next year?” Howard Owens asked increduously. “You’re supposed to save the city money. This shows you’re spending money you don’t need to spend.”

However, Mayor Andre Quintero said placing the Measure GG extension on the 2018 ballot would leave voters with little choice but to approve it because not doing so would catapult the city into serious financial crisis with the measure set to end in 2019.

“If we put it on the Nov. 2018 ballot, voters are looking at a fiscal cliff,” Quintero said. “We’d be saying ‘If you don’t’ support this, this is what will be cut.’”

Councilwomen Norma Macias and Victoria Martinez said they were hesitant to place the measure on this year’s ballot because, being an odd year, voter turnout could be low, which means a smaller number of residents would decide the fate of Measure GG.

“Let’s face it, voters will have to get out of their comfort zone to vote on one issue, and that one issue is to tax them,” Macias said.

However, Quintero assuaged their concerns when he proposed and received unanimous support to add the 10-year limit to the extension and to make the Measure GG citizen oversight committee permanent.

The tax was first approved by voters in 2008, and voters decided in 2014 to extend it till 2019.