By the time you’re reading this, SCI, a consulting group, will have held two sessions at the Municipal Auditorium to convince Oroville residents how wonderful and profitable the marijuana industry will be for our city. That remains to be seen.
This is what we do know. Five Oroville city councilors took the vote on this issue out of the people’s hands. They are paying a consulting firm to stage an event so they can pretend they are listening to you and care what you think. The city is aggressively putting two tax measures on the November ballot, a sales tax and a marijuana tax. Leading up to the vote you will hear cries of insolvency, bankruptcy and public safety concerns. These are meant to nudge you into voting “yes” on both tax measures.
If the truth is to be known, this city’s No. 1 problem is the unaffordable mismanaged CalPERS retirement obligation. City councils cannot propose enough tax revenue to erase decades of unbridled incompetence by CalPERS managers or previous city councils who overpromised with no regard for taxpayer dollars.
The question is, should we give them more of our money, which at best, will only postpone the inevitable? Oroville city voters can choose to tax themselves once, twice or not at all. We get to decide if the city is overreaching once again.
— Lorraine Christensen, Oroville
This is why we don’t have a sales tax increase on the upcoming Chico ballot – because Tom Lando is too busy trying to push this measure through in O-ville. He’s tricky, but it’s tough to be in two places at one time. He’s hoping to shove through as many local tax increases as he can so we won’t be able to drive out to shop somewhere else.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
She’s right that these tax increases are not going to solve the problem. Sooner or later the pension issue will be addressed one way or another. The only thing the tax increases can do is put off the day of reckoning but not for long.
We’ve had one of the biggest increases in the stock markets in history yet these pensions are still woefully underfunded and they are demanding tax increases. What’s going to happen when the stock market goes into a bear market? (At least 20% draw down.) We are way over due for a bear market. But even if we don’t get a bear market for another decade (very unlikely) these pensions are still toast if the market doesn’t go up at least 7% every year on average.
The sad thing is that Oroville could set an example and deal with this issue head on right now. But that is not going to happen because all the politicians there are trough feeders, too.
If you want to get an idea of what’s coming listen to this and check out the charts:
http://financialrepressionauthority.com/2018/05/20/the-roundtable-insight-charles-hugh-smith-on-the-intensifying-pension-crisis/
Thanks Bob, I don’t think I’ve talked enough here about the futility of these attempts to shore up the rotten pension system. Public employees are going to have to come to terms with their own ridiculous demands that the rest of us foot their outrageous lifestyles.
There’s a conversation that’s long overdue.
I read not long ago about a poll that concluded most public workers don’t understand how their pensions are paid for. A relative of mine who worked in government for years has expressed a total ignorance of where the money comes from. Many in the private sector don’t even know about the pensions, at all – much less that the taxpayers are bearing a bigger share of the burden every year. That cost not only comes in tax increases but they will continue to divert money from infrastructure.
I might be willing to discuss a revenue measure that pays to get us out of CalPERS. There’s another conversation that needs to be had – how much would it cost the city to get out of CalPERS?
A good but scary question, thanks Mardi.
From what I’ve read, it would cost the City nothing to get out of CalPERS. HOWEVER if they did that, CalPERS would reduce the pension of all current and retired City employees. I couldn’t care less if that happened. However we know that City management won’t ever let that happen.
See what happened to the City of Layolton : http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article115237643.html
Of course the City can also pay to get out of CalPERS. Sean Morgan claims that would cost $175 Million.
http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/next-calpers-victim-city-of-chico/
That figure seems ridiculous since San Jose figured it would only cost them $5.7 million to leave.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-municipalities-jose/california-city-council-finds-it-cant-afford-to-quit-calpers-idUSL2N0DB2M520130425
So there is another option, disincorporation. That is we vote for our neighborhood to no longer be in the City and become County. Won’t be easy to accomplish this either.
So the other option is to sell our homes and move. Becoming more tempting every day.