Pacifica Tribune, Letters to the Editor, 7/2/13, "Taxes" by Therese M. Dyer
| Another illusion, progress and a balanced City budget |
I also requested under the Public Records Act a lot of information regarding the $5 million we spent on consultants (I discovered a lot more). This is why I have asked the City Council to put it on the next meeting agenda, just like some of Sue Digre's constituents regarding Calera Creek and the Highway 1 widening. I also discovered through the Public Records Request the new fees they are imposing on us, especially when it comes to building permits. They are not consistent and call for a state audit, according to Mayor Stone's recent address. It was to be a simple procedure. Not true. I'd like him to explain his strategy. For one thing, the one I requested from Public Records omitted the seismic fund, the education fund, the archive fund, general plan fee and building staff fee.
I received an old permit from someone and where the workmen's compensation line was, it was crossed out and someone wrote in seismic fund which, I was told, was mandated by the state. Funny, it doesn't appear on any of my permits either. Plus I was told there is no money in the education fund and it went into the general fund where I'm sure all the other ones went just like the fire assessment.
I also found out that the consultant they hired for parks stated in 2030 an increase of 600 people, so it tells me it's politics as usual that they don't intend to develop anything here. The old sewer plant has been vacant for years and so far we haven't had any bites on it either. When it comes to the assisted living complex the reason it bellied up was that the investors spent over $100,000 and some of them pulled out because there were too many delays due to a lack of quorum. If this won't get you off the couch, well, I just have to say I told you so just like I told them about the $53,000 for consultants outsourcing the Police Department. No longer will I vote for any new taxes that take away from education and then expect us to support bond issues. Hope to see you at the next City Council meeting."
Note: Rock, feather balance photograph from Rap genius.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
47 comments:
While I do not agree with Therese about the need for the UUT I do feel that we need to change the ballot language. First the measure need to have a 5 year sunset not 10 years. I,like Therese remember the fire assessment where we were promised many things about how we would be protecting our fire department only to have the money replace the funding from the general fund and watch as our Fire department close a station and laid off first responders.
What I learn from that is not to trust promises about how tax money will be spent but to wait for the hard proof of actions.
Since I know that the City needs the money I would vote for it if it had the following:
A five year sunset [to let the people see how much it really cost and how the money is really being spent].
A $500.00 Cap on the tax for all taxpayers. Not just business.
A means tested exemption such as the PG&E life line not a blanket age based exemption.
Lets do this right a struggling single mother,is more deserving of a tax break then someone like me who has both funds and assets built up over many years.
Tom
Good comments but. The public is not in the mood to give these goons on city council any more tax money.
Wow. I am sure happy when we took stock option money, we didn't buy in Pacifica. With the money we made a much better purchase in a town with new schools and every home in our area was built in the last 10 years. Good nice clean safe family neighborhoods.
We saw the sad writting in Pacifica. Urban decay!
Why is $500 such an acceptable figure to some on this blog? $500 is oppressive for a lot of people. If you can afford it, so what! If those that think this is such a great gig, I think the businesses that apply for the cap go down and pay the city the $500 at the beginning of the year. Why don't you guys with all the money and love of taxes just go down and pay the $500 up front. Whether you owe it or not. Oh, and if you own a business, take care of that as well. I'm a little tired of all this acceptance of a random number as fair. I have a lot of other things I can do with that money. Charity, perhaps!
Pacifica is a charity!!
If you whiners could please stop using roads, police, fire, etc. before you start complaining about paying taxes, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Larry If you don't like the $500.00 cap tell council as it stands right now there is no cap on what the average taxpayer can pay.
@235 woohoo! great non-use of the police on July 4th! we must have saved a bundle. and let me guess, our stealthy council once again waived help from the sheriff's dept? saved another bundle for the third year. odd the usual council braggarts are silent about their roll of the dice with public safety and property. guess the wink wink balanced budget is enough glory.
Tom
This group on city council, just like all other city councils have proven they can not manage money. It is not my fault they drove the city into the ground.
No more tax money for these bozo's. Plus Mary Ann, doesn't even apologize any more when she takes our money!
yes 2:35 please can I please please pay my share. No I don't have health coverage for my wife and kids and our rent takes most of my $2500 a month salary but we manage to squeak by and even eat meat once in a while. I know these 21 year old kids out of high school really deserve to start off making $100,000 on the police force. I mean this is a dangerous town they deserve to be paid what they are in Oakland and SF to start. So please take my $200 a year, meat isn't good for us anyway. I mean what good are braces for the kids if they get shot by a gang drive by.
Call me Scrooge, but did you ever consider that looking for a job might be a better use of your time than whining on the Internet, Tiny?
South San Francisco, Daly city, San Bruno should send us money. Or maybe they should revenue share cause our residents go over the hill to shop.
Maybe someone should call up Ed Lee.
That's the lamest argument ever... Those cities actually encouraged development and live with the associated problems, and should therefore reap the tax benefits. Only ridiculous, entitled, obstructionist hippies would fight against all development and then try to reach into the pockets of neighboring communities that did what their communities needed to try and grab their tax revenues.
Only a fool would argue that the people who paid the sales taxes should not get some benefit from the taxes they paid.
Only a fool would argue to keep any business from happening in Pacifica and would then argue to rip it from the pockets of cities that actually made the hard decisions to allow development.
You are the sad and pathetic face of all that is NIMBY, 9:39.
Hey 622, There are 1000's of families like Tiny Tim who barely have enough to make it in Pacifica. How BIG of you to say "go find a job" Typical entitled spoiled government worker attitude. Why should we pay more taxes so high school grads make bank? Time for a reality check baby. These ridiqulous compensations must stop. Especially the ones making 100K-200K. Cut cut cut, I won't vote for this tax and I'm a senior.
Wait til you here the sales pitch. Council will spare no expense. It'll be the best our tax dollars can buy!
8:48 Julie Lancelle said it at a council meeting
Let's get them to share revenue with us.
The people making 100k-200k don't care about Tiny Tim. They are out enjoying all their hard earned money.
Many may come out tomorrow to oppose the tax being put on the ballot. But I'm not sure it will help, because it is a "financial emergency", this ballot measure is a fait accompli.
If you are wondering what a well funded slick Pro-UUT campaign might look like, check out the paraphernalia for Measure A in Hercules, which won handily 70/30:
http://pinole-hercules.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/police-union-comes-out-in-favor-of-hercules-tax-increase
http://www.saveherculespd.org/
This is how the "Pro" consultants that we paid a couple thousand for are going make it palletable, do it and get it done.
Those who oppose the UUT in Pacifica are disorganized or not yet organized. Similarily, there was no organized opposition to Measure A in Hercules, no website, no ballot arguments written against. Will Pacifica be the same story, or will Pacifica fight this kicking and screaming and shouting No Friggin Way? Remember people, that there is going to be a Library Bond on the horizon, so count your change carefully when you vote on the UUT modernization.
I won't vote for any more taxes until this city stops wasting huge amounts of money and makes real reductions in expenditures. Let me see you make a real effort to negotiate some concessions with labor unions and I may think about giving you more money if we still need it. But we won't, a 5% across the board reduction in wages and benefits would result in about a million back in our general fund.
This regressive tax will harm small businesses and 1000's of lower income families who are barely making it. Keep it off the ballot and if it does make it on it needs to be defeated.
Hutch for Mayor!
BTW Hutch
do you post on SOL?
If the city is declaring a fiscal emergency that is a good thing for restructuring debt and city employee contracts.
Thanks to the City of Vallejo's bankruptcy the state reorganized how cities can declare bankruptcy. It allows for municipal governments to get all the benefits of a bankruptcy, restructuring debt, renegotiating employee contracts through a mediator (judge) that would fit compensations to revenues and curtail frivolous spending in general.
Bring on the fiscal emergency. It would be simple to file in redwood City to force the city into the states new bankruptcy steps after that. Yea fiscal emergency. We will get a chance to renegotiate the fire and police contracts by court order after that.
Todd
It also makes it impossible for them to to borrow money. So the library bonds are a pipe dream.
Remember the old Italian saying.
Dip your tongue in your brain before you talk/post.
You can easily look up UUT measures on ballotpedia. Of the 5 or so UUT modernization measures like ours that were voted on in 2012/13 the voters passed all but one.
The language used to sell them is always the same, a variation on "to save cops, fire, fill potholes, fight gangs, remove graffiti, etc.". Some are more theatrical, offering "preservation or restoration of neighborhood police patrols." I'd expect ours to be a real doozy. We can afford the best.
Senior exemptions are standard because senior voters can be counted on to vote, and senior voters will support a measure promising safety and security. In a low turn-out, off-year election like this November, that will be enough. Our Council of two, plus drone, are counting on it. And then, watch them spend!
Mary Ann, does mind control experiments on them.
You will do what I say, you will do what I say, You will do what I say, or we bring you to the lab and do lab expermiments on you.
@1255 Let's just say she has a definite advantage when it comes to getting others to see things her way. Not an unusual skill-set for a politician, but it wasn't acquired in the usual way...law school. Still, she's a real politician.
Not a done deal 12:46. If people become mad enough (they are) to fight this thing it can be defeated. It may take an organized effort like passing out flyers at shopping centers to alert voters but it can be done. And seniors aren't stupid, they know when they're being lied to and many have kids here that would have to pay the tax. We also may have the business community and the chamber on the anti UUT tax side.
Hutch
The group of no is much better organized then the group of yes.
What is the over/under on how many people speak tomorrow night? half a dozen I would say.
BTW I asked you a question above?
Stick a fork in it, Hutch. It's done. Our little mini-council has been stacking the deck for a while. Got all the help they'll need on council now and an army of true believers in the community. First this, then the library bond. They're just getting warmed up.
Wait til they have to modernize the UUT modernization! That's the pattern with these things. A few years down the road they declare another fiscal emergency, get the UUT on the ballot with CATV and anything else the consultant tells them about. Pretty easy sell by lowering the overall rate while increasing the total haul and using the same scare tactics they'll use on this one.
This is Pacifica and this is how we'll live with tax and spenders in charge. If home prices climb, watch the exodus from this town of
anyone who can get away.
How do you organize a group of anonomi to campaign against a tax measure?
What's SOL 2:29? Besides the obvious $h1+ Outta Luck?
I never put much stock in weighing council meeting attendance to judge support.
Hutch
Stripers on Line the fishing web site
SOL is the city financially also lol
Did you used to go into Coastside 2 when Dick owned the store?
Organizing and educating the community is the real hurdle, not worrying about the few on here. Council has already funded the yes side and bought it top-notch advice. They've also recruited community organizers who've run school tax measures, etc. and are plugged into every organization in town.
The no side has no funds, no leaders, zilch. If the Chamber were to take an active role, things could get interesting. But, that would be a serious and divisive stance to take. Might not be worth it to them in the long run. If some other leader emerges and it's not someone people want to identify with, it could backfire.
Regardless, where's the money to come from to conduct a serious campaign in very little time? And how do we counter the fear tactics that are sure to be part of the UUT campaign? "Don't worry, you're safe" is not going to do it. About the only argument that "sticks" is that the money is unrestricted and goes to the general fund for Council's use. No oversight til after it's spent. Just about anyone could start to worry about that one! And it's bullet-proof.
"How do you organize a group of anonomi to campaign against a tax measure?"
It's called grass roots. People already don't like to pay more tax. It won't be as hard as yo think to get the word out even to seniors. Bottom line it all comes down to one person in the ballot box, not how much the yes side spent which is an obvious attempt to twist the truth and people already see it.
Only one guy in the gang of yes did anything. Bernie single handedly got term limits on the ballot.
Many groups of yes crashed and burned.
Bernie is actually a cautionary tale. Sensible people were fine with democracy, so only a few wackadoos could change the system for very partisan purposes.
658 This UUT thing is far too well planned to be derailed by some revelation/do the right thing moment in the voting booth. Seniors are the largest voting bloc in low turnout, off-year elections. Seniors will be the target of the fear-based propaganda, and due to the exemption, which will be very well advertised, they can vote for the measure and not have to pay for it. That's going to be hard to beat.
more scamming with your tax dollars. Presumably the $10K the city spent on the political consultant are now coming to light. Pro-tax advocacy on the city's website: a fact sheet and FAQ. All omitting anything opposing the tax.
City focus on landing page
http://www.cityofpacifica.org/
"fact sheet" http://www.cityofpacifica.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=5915
FAQ: http://www.cityofpacifica.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=5921
Seniors should know they are going to have to jump through some hoops to qualify for the exemption. What IS automatic is the tax showing up on their bill. Getting it removed is a bit tougher.
Seniors don't like stuff like this. How many qualify for the exemption now and don't take it because they don't know how? Besides, most seniors have kids and grandkids here who WOULD be hit with the tax. As far as frightening them with crime and gangs taking over, they aren't stupid.
As far as not fighting this measure because the city is too well organized? You DO know this is Pacifica?
I support this utility tax. It covers EVERYBODY and bring in lots of revenue.
10:33 sounds like Vreeland.
When it worked Vreeland's way it was democracy at its best.
When it worked against Vreeland it wasn't democracy.
Good for you Anon 11:10, Why don't you volunteer to pay for the people in Pacifica who are poor and barley scape by?
These comments from people involved with the UUT campaign are so phony and obvious. The are like an old Dragnet episode.
Get over your obsession with Vreeland.
Seniors should know they are going to have to jump through some hoops to qualify for the exemption. What IS automatic is the tax showing up on their bill. Getting it removed is a bit tougher
Go to city hall fill out a form with a copy of the bills and presto it comes off.
Senior exemption? Take it or pay it. You have a choice. Just like with your vote. We all have a choice.
If your bill for your phones is $200 per month, your cost is about 42 cents a day/$156 a year for this new tax.
We can be reasonably sure the city doesn't have enough money to pay the bills to maintain even our current status quo. We have Council's assurances of what they will do with the money and that it will be enough to maintain the status quo. We have no guarantees.
What a shock!
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