Archive | March, 2018

Is too much of your money is being spent at the “discretion” of others? Half the new gas tax to be spent “at the discretion of local municipalities…”

8 Mar

It looks like the gas tax repeal has made the ballot, and good for that.  Now we’re hearing, only half the money from the new gas tax was intended for road repairs, the rest could be spent “at the discretion of local municipalities…”   Ask yourself, when was the last time the road in front of your house was properly surfaced? How many sewer hook-ups with crappy patch jobs, how many crews pouring slobbers in pot holes that end up all over the underside of your car?

How about that $385,000 remodel on city of Chico council chambers? That was tacked on to your Comcast bill.  Are you sick of “discretionary spending” yet?

From the San Diego Union Tribune, January 18:

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/sd-me-gas-tax-20180118-story.html

So where is the money going?

Roughly half of the revenue from the increased gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, about $26 billion in the next decade, would go to transportation infrastructure maintained by the state. That includes about $1.8 billion a year for the highway system.

The other half of the money would be spent largely at the discretion of local municipalities on a variety of projects, predominantly related to road maintenance but also improvements to transit, bike and pedestrian infrastructure. About $1.5 billion annually is projected for repairs to local streets and roads.

And get aload of the carrots they’re waving in front of us!

The state is also planning to roll out annually about $25 million for freeway patrols for stranded motorists on the most heavily congested freeways, $25 million in local planning grants and $5 million in workforce training.

Right – cops won’t even do traffic control or come to the scene of an accident unless there’s a major injury, you really believe they will do freeway patrols for stranded motorists? And here’s two more lies gas tax proponents just keep repeating:

With the taxes and fee hikes, Californians will pay an extra $10 a month on average, according to the state Department of Transportation. A legislative analysis found that drivers currently spend roughly $700 a year fixing their cars due to poor roads.

First of all, it will be more than $10 a month between increased gas prices and the hike in registration. Second, how many of you are paying $700 a year to fix road damage on your cars? 

Governor Moonbeam has lied to us before – for one thing, he told us he would not raise taxes without voter approval, and then he went right to the back door of the capital building with this gas and registration tax. He also told us the sales tax increase would be temporary, and that it would keep college tuition down – both lies.

Public workers have become The New One Percent, and they like it. They aren’t going to let go easily. 

Tags: , ,

Will the gas tax repeal make the ballot? Stay tuned!

2 Mar

Carl Demaio and Reform California are still working to put the gas tax repeal on the November ballot.  I believe (?) the deadline was Wednesday (Feb. 28) but have not heard whether they were able to gather the required number of signatures. 

Here’s what Ballotpedia has posted:

https://ballotpedia.org/California_Voter_Approval_for_Gas_and_Vehicle_Taxes_Initiative_(2018)

“The California Voter Approval for Gas and Vehicle Taxes Initiative (#17-0033) may appear on the ballot in California as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.”

Scroll down and have a laugh – Jerry Brown says, “I can’t believe the proponents of this ballot measure really want Californians to keep driving on lousy roads and dangerous bridges. Taking billions of dollars a year from road maintenance and repair borders on insanity.”

Listen, Moonbeam, you should think before you speak. You can’t believe it because it’s not true – proponents of this ballot measure have repeatedly said the money for road repairs is available but being siphoned off for other purposes. You’ve also just acknowledged lousy roads and dangerous bridges, for which you, as Captain of our ship, are responsible, and therefore, liable!  And yes, taking billions of dollars a year from road maintenance and repair to fund your pension borders not only on insanity, it borders on corruption, Sweet Cheeks. Should we have a court martial? Maybe set up a plank? Ooooo – keeeeel haul!

I think Brown is privately shocked about the voter’s response, lots of people have signed. I’m guessing the petitions were turned in, but it will take a while to verify the signatures. 

We’ve been talking about hidden taxes, such as the “franchise fees” the city and county are allowed to collect from utility companies such as Comcast and PG&E. This gas tax was shoved on us by the governor and the legislature, without any input from the voters.  For years now they – including Jerry Brown – have siphoned their outrageous salaries, pensions and benefits out of the road funding. I’ve sat in meetings many times and watched the local agencies pilfer “restricted”  fund to pay down their pension deficit, while roads and other infrastructure in Chico have turned to absolute crap. 

The foxes are in charge of the henhouse People.  For example, Scott Dowell used to be the finance manager for Chico Area Recreation District before he got hired by the city of Chico. While CARD allowed two public swimming pools to deteriorate to sub-code and sub-ADA conditions, Dowell made a extra $400,000 “side fund pay-off” on CARD’s $1.7 million pension deficit, saying it would save the agency money on interest payments to CalPERS. Meanwhile, CARD management has only started paying toward their pensions within the last two years, “classic members” like CARD manager Ann Willmann are only paying 2 PERCENT.  That all happened on Dowell’s watch.  Now he’s running City of Chico finances.  Next Thursday I’d bet my last $5 he’s going to lay down a pretty wild argument for a sales tax increase. 

Cause taxes are their heroin. As long as they can get a fix, put off rehab for just one more fix, one more fix, one more fix…

Just look at Chico Unified School District – they’ve had a bond measure on almost every ballot since 1998, and the last three have passed. But they are getting ready to put another bond on the ballot, because they just got new demands from both CalPERS and CalSTRS for more money, more money, more money…

You probably think you hang around with a nice crowd, but if you send your kid to a Chico school – any Chico school – you are leaving them all day with a bunch of freaking junkies. Wake UP!

A friend of mine recently asked me if I knew city council member Randy Stone is running for Butte County Assessor. I was kinda bitchy – I told her I didn’t give a shit who was running for election, because elected offices don’t matter anymore – it’s $TAFF. And we don’t get to vote for them. 

But, voting is important, especially the initiatives. So I’ll gas up the old election buggy and try to get it out on the road, try to start posting some news about the local candidates, besides just…YECHHHHHHH!

cause we can’t and we won’t and we don’t stop…

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Under CARD director Tom Lando’s watch, Feather River Rec and Park District audit finds “possible instances of fraud within its gymnastics program”

1 Mar

The latest news out of Oroville is fraud at the rec district.

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20180228/feather-river-recreation-and-park-district-conducts-internal-investigation-after-audit

Tom Lando, who is also a board member at Chico Area Recreation District, is interim director at Feather River Rec and Park District. They have not had a permanent director since the last director was fired by the board without much explanation. The director before that, Ann Willmann, left FRRPD to  come to CARD after an investigation into secret cameras placed in district toilet stalls.

How do we keep getting stuck with FRRPD rejects? Willmann got over $20,000 salary increase by moving to CARD, without answering any questions about those cameras hidden in a little girls’ bathroom.

Lando has a long history too – as former city manager of Chico, he introduced the M.O.U. (memo of understanding between Chico city council and staff) that tied salaries to revenue increases, but not decreases…

That was during the building boom of the early 2000’s. Permit fees, property tax revenues, utility tax revenues – the money was flowing in like crazy.  The result was, Lando’s salary went from roughly $65,000/year to over $100,000/ year. He retired at about $135,000/year, just in salary, paying NOTHING toward his own benefits EVER. His latest replacement, Mark Orme, recently received a raise to cover the cost of his benefits share, now making $207,500 in salary, with total compensation (his benefits package is over $100,000) of $330,790/year.

Oink Oink Mark! $1,000/day! 

So Lando has left his mark on our town, and continues to leave his mark on our town.  City Assistant Manager Chris Constantin told me Lando still has a lot of influence with the city of Chico, I’m not surprised.

I don’t know what Orovillians will do about the continuing problems at FRRPD, but I wonder – is it time for a recall at CARD? 

City consultant: “more people, more payroll, more allocations” – this is how city of Chico management siphons money from the road fund into their own wallets

1 Mar

Thursday March 8,  City of Chico finance mangler Scott Dowell will give a dog-and-pony presentation about how the city spends money. That ought to be a gas, but instead, I attended yesterday’s (2/28/18) Finance Committee meeting to hear a consultant explain the process of “cost allocation”.

Dowell is disingenuous – who does he really expect to show up on a Thursday at 10 am? Oh yeah, I’ll just ask my boss if I can come in early and take two hours off at lunch, everybody does that! 

You know, I might have had bosses who would go for that, but only once. And you wouldn’t be allowed to discuss it at the work place, that’s a pretty standard rule of getting along with fellow employees  – leave your politics in the parking lot. So, in this way, Dowell is very pointedly leaving out the working class who would have to support the sales tax increase he is going to be selling at his “workshop”.

But, when you have limited time, you use it wisely. Who wants to hear a spin from the Fox in Charge of the Henhouse, when you can listen to a visiting watch dog? That’s how I see consultant Chad Wolford, eversince 2015 when he told council they were spending too much money on “overhead” – administrative salaries and benefits.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2017/12/21/no-kidding-our-city-is-headed-for-deep-doo-doo-2/

As the consultant describes it, cost allocation means, “central administration cost (also referred to as “overhead”) spread down to departments as operating costs.”  Just repeat that a few times, and remind yourself, “operating” means “actual work,” such as fixing the streets, or maintaining the sewer plant. 

Cost allocation is the process by which these ridiculous management salaries are cherry picked from all the departments. Makes it look legal and fair, but it’s really the same old system of moving peas under walnuts shells. Money is moved between restricted and non-restricted funds to pay for stuff that money was not originally earmarked for. 

What’s the use of restricting funds (to their original purpose, such as street maintenance) if you can just transfer them wherever you want to pay for whatever you want? This is the process by which administrators like Orme, Constantin and Dowell take grant money that was originally intended to fix streets and pad it into their wallets. 

The consultant is a nice man, he admitted to me, “this is a very complicated process.”  I replied, “No kidding!” That’s why  I had tagged him into the lobby of the building when he finished his presentation, I had to ask some additional questions. 

Well here’s something that he made pretty clear – the “changes”  (increases) in the allocations are based on staff and salary increases. “More people, more payroll, more allocations,” Wolford said. “Salaries and benefits have gone up, operating budgets are up…” 

So, I don’t think I’ll be bothered with Dowell’s dog and pony show Saturday – ‘scuse me, that’s Thursday March 8 – I already heard how the city of Chico spends it’s money. 

Tags: , , ,

Newer Entries →