The Half Moon Bay City Council declared a fiscal emergency on Tuesday night, laying the tracks for a possible sales tax measure on the November ballot. Approved unanimously by the City Council, the fiscal emergency status grants the city extra flexibility to balance the budget. According to state Proposition 218 guidelines, a city under a financial emergency can move forward with a tax increase with a simple majority of voter support. Under other circumstances, a tax measure would require a difficult two-thirds “supermajority.”
The financial red flag came as elected officials approved the city’s budget for next year. The new budget draws on approximately $504,000 from the city’s general fund reserves.
The City Council took a special vote to grant a one-time exemption to longstanding reserve policy, which normally requires Half Moon Bay to save 30 percent of its revenues for a rainy day. ......The city’s proposal for a half-cent sales tax increase is estimated to generate an additional $700,000 in annual revenues. Full article 6/16/2010, HMB Review newspaper.
Posted by Kathy Meeh.
6 comments:
Half Moon Bay is having to draw upon their "general fund reserves account" for which it saves back "30% of its revenue for a "rainy day." Not sure long HMB has had one of those "rainy day reserve funds". Pacifica current city council, by contrast, has never really planned ahead to provide a good business contingency plan.
HMB is considering a 1/2% sales tax, no time-limit yet projected (that I noticed). Last year, by contrast, Pacifica proposed a 1% sales tax for 7 years which failed with Measure D last year.
HMB is proposing to replenish general fund "reserve funds", Pacifica has never really had "reserve funds", and has enjoyed "a rainy day" for the duration of the existing city council.
Pacifica has again planned to pay for "basic services" by taxing property owners through 3 separate taxes after the Fall election. May these redundant citizen taxes again fail in Pacifica, and may both cities develop their cities to provide sufficient tax revenue to provide city services and reserves. After all, in reality "our economy is our economy".
Honest question: what are the basic services that our property taxes and local busines taxes go toward?
Sewer? Already pay a seperate sewer assesment.
Water? I'm billed seperately for that.
Electricity/Gas? I'm billed seperately for that.
Streets? I've been told I'm welcome to pay for repaving them myself.
Dog Park? Private funds are being collected for that.
Police? What police? Burglars are breaking into cars and homes with impunity and when a storm knocked out a light, the police refused to send an officer 100 yards down the street from the station to direct traffic even when it was backing up to the east end of San Pedro Valley as a result. I guess anyone driving while not wearing a seat belt should be quaking in fear though.
Schools? Okay, I guess I pay for them.
Libraries? Okay, I guess I pay for them.
shut up and pay for the street to be paved your self. The city can not be bothered with such nonsense
"Pot hole", Anon@10:09AM, oh shut up. Cheap scape, how about paying for schools and library service again, 2x better services (and, its for the children). Don't forget about Fire, Paramedics. Maybe consider volunteering for police, that way you know you've got one.
Now you're covered 100%, except for one more tax, actually 3. After the election more "basic general city fund services", including our cash in lieu of health benefits. I almost forgot that one.
Also, we got to replace $50 million in city sewer collection pipes to avoid fines and lawsuits again, so save-back your vacation money for that one.
Cheap scape
ahahahahahahahahaha!
How drunk are you, Same 'ol city council?
Police are not ALLOWED to direct traffic at broken traffic signals because they have to remain until it is fixed, which could take hours, thereby compromising their ability to respond to an emergency.
And why don't YOU go get your 2 (or lets be generous, four best friends), and go try to find the burglars in the act, then CALL the police with a good description/license plate. And you don't even look like a cop! They wear uniforms and drive obvious cars. With the city budget what it is, do you really think the cops are getting told they can work overtime to do plainclothes stings? Why don't you call the police station and see how many officers are on duty at any one time?
You're probably right about the streets, though...
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