Lately I feel public and quasi-public workers are launching an attack on the working public to make us pay their ridiculous salaries and benefits whether they are sustainable or not. Not only are city of Chico, Chico Unified, and Chico Area Rec District asking for tax increases in November, but we’ve got a water rate increase and a garbage tax coming around the bend. The county is also talking about getting rid of the septage ponds at the dump and making a deal to tote our poop all the way out to the city sewer facility west of Chico – if you have a septic tank, you are about to be forced onto sewer rates.
The common denominator? Unfunded pension liabilities. I got a figure for CARD’s liability – about $1.7 million, and only for a staff of 33 employees. I don’t have the most recent figure for city of Chico, but Brian Nakamura once quoted about $64 million. And good luck getting anything out of the school district – they’re not there to educate anybody. But I’ll guess their liability would rival the city’s.
I never asked the county for their figure, but I know it’s bad because for years now they’ve been complaining that the dump can’t support itself. I know, these conversations are so dumb. One minute, they scream they aren’t getting enough trash, and the county has made a deal and the city is working on same deal that would force the trash haulers to bring all of our trash to Neal Road instead of taking it out of the area for cheaper “tipping fees.” Of course, cheaper tipping fees would be good for us ratepayers, but the county needs the fees to pay their salaries, and yeah, unfunded pension liability.
But in a separate conversation they say the dump is so full they have to take out the septage ponds. Follow your tail, that’s right, just keep following your tail…
My supervisor, who shall remain nameless right now cause I am too tempted to call her nasty names, tells me this is okay, “we’re not trying to force you on sewer.” But, I told her, if you make that deal with Chico to take our septage to the sewer facility, you are forcing us on sewer, and we’ll be at the mercy of city of Chico and their unfunded pension liability.
Ask Mark Sorensen, he wrote an extensive blog about how the city has pilfered the sewer fund into the red paying salaries and benefits for employees who have never even been on that side of town. Sorensen took that blog off the Norcal blog site after he became a council member, you can’t find it now, wonder why? Because under Mayor Sorensen city staff has administered a system called “cost allocation” – if an employee attends a meeting in which the sewer is mentioned, their salary and benefits for that meeting are taken out of the sewer fund. Yep, an administrative version of walnut shells and peas. Watch that pea, Suckers!
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article55313690.html
Sorensen has made it clear he will not fix the pension problem, instead, holding employee contribution at 9 – 12 percent and instituting a “step system” for automatic pay raises and promotions.
https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/01/03/public-managemen…ost-per-employee/
For that matter, the county has done nothing to turn their pension liability around. That’s why the weird conversation about the dump, they’re desperate to pay down that pension debt just like all the other public and quasi-public agencies. They know we need trash service and septic tank owners all over the county are dependent on those septage ponds, and they’re twisting that knife.
Bernie Sanders talks about a revolution – well, you can’t have a revolution if nobody shows up. I’d like to mount a stronger campaign against these grabs, I need some help.
Do you pay taxes? Of course you do. Do you live in the city of Chico or Chico “area of influence”? That would make you a “Chico Taxpayer.” Get involved. Bring your comments here, or take them to your various elected officials. Tell them you’re a Chico Taxpayer, and you’re fed up.
I like to quote Arlo Guthrie here, even if he and I would probably never agree on much – but what he said in “Alice’s Restaurant” is absolutely true: “One guy is crazy. Two guys are (politically incorrect). But three guys are a MOVEMENT…”
It’s true, I’ve seen it – politicians don’t listen to one person, unless that person is a BIG donor. They don’t listen to two people. But something magical happens after that third, fourth, fifth person chimes in. Then it’s worth their attention, you might get them to actually DO SOMETHING.
UPDATE: I got a note from a fellow Chico Taxpayer regarding the city’s pension liability – as of December, over $99 million. This was apparently covered in the finance report at the last council meeting, so the exact figure should be in the reports available on the city website.
Thank you fellow citizen – it’s nice to know somebody is paying attention!
UPDATE UPDATE: I got a note from another Chico Taxpayer asking about CARD’s staff, what kind of packages they get. I referred them to http://publicpay.ca.gov/
As I looked over the information, I see the employee packages are very inconsistent, spread out over more than 33 employees, but wow – how come some people get packages worth over $20,000 and others get packages worth less than $2,000? I don’t know how that money is divvied up, what they get for it, but I know there is no employee contribution.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
From the “Investor’s Business Daily,” 22Jan 16: “Utah has reformed pensions so the state caps its contribution to pensions at a generous 10% of salaries. If more is needed, workers must contribute (it).”
I’ve no idea what percentages apply locally, but surely any state, county, or city can make changes at contract time, if they are so determined. The local conflict of interest with city councilors being financed at election time by Public Employee Unions/ Associations/PACs needs to be addressed, STRONGLY.
Thanks for your comment, I agree. Our current council is beholden to public employees. We have several tax measures percolating here, all pushed forward by local public employees – CARD, Chico Pd, and the school district. We need to start making some strategy to oppose these measures.
In Hemet, the taxpayers association was able to pass measures for city council term limits and elimination of city council health benefits. They spent $7,000 in that election, and those measures passed resoundingly.
https://chicotaxpayers.com/2014/04/19/hemet-taxpayers-…uted-term-limits/
I wish I could get such a group of determined citizens – instead of just opposing these tax grabs, we could go on the offensive for a change, like they did in Hemet.
Here, in 2012, a group of friends and I spent about $300 to defeat Measure J, the cell phone tax. We got 100 yard signs, and weren’t even able to get them all out in time for the election, but we put that measure to bed.
I’d like to think we defeated it, but of course voters who had never heard of our organization turned that measure down. But we can’t count on the voters this time – they are about to be hit with a regular poop storm of deception.
I don’t have a pac, but our group, or any individual, can spend up to $1,000 without reporting anything. Seven of us could spend $1,000 a piece, in tandem, and we would not have to report.
Just thinking out loud. Let me know what you think.