I got my ballot with county voting guide a few days ago, and mailed my completed ballot yesterday. I’ve been ready for this election for years now, believe me. I’ve been watching attempts to disable Prop 13 coming through the legislature and I’ve been watching Chico Area Recreation District fumble along with their tax measure. Dan Walters and other political observers have been telling us about the ginormous pension deficits around the state, so who would be surprised at all the tax measures that are making their way, again, like some rough beast, toward the ballot.
It was a no-brainer, as far as I’m concerned – No on 13, No on A.
And now it’s off to November!
Whether or not we are successful in beating Measure A, we have to start watching CARD more closely. Board members Tom Lando and Michael Worley are both up for re-election in November, and I think Lando needs to go. He is the driving force behind the tax measures coming forward this year, he’s been working toward a tax measure since 2012. He even paid for a survey out of his own pocket – but that survey came back negative. So he put his name in the hat for CARD board, and since nobody ran against him, he was appointed. Yes, it’s that easy.
As board member he has pushed forward this parcel tax, offering one rainbow promise after another, without once admitting that CARD’s real financial problem is the employees don’t pay enough toward their own ridiculous pensions.
Why would Lando admit that – he is one of the top five living pensioneers in Butte County. Of course it is in his best interest, as well as that of CPOA president Jim Parrott, who co-signed the Argument For Measure A, to make sure CalPERS is funded.
Lando put $6,000 into this measure, that we know of. CPOA tossed in $1,000. But wow – $50,000 from the Service Employees International Union – which represents full-time employees of CARD? That’s not obvious? Hey, pull your underwear off your face!
Jim Parrott is also Board President of Chico Swim Association. That’s no co-inky-dink, Folks. These people take these positions so they can work together to control our community. I don’t care if that sounds like a conspiracy theory, it’s true. CARD is an agency that can raise taxes, that is where Lando’s interest lies – making sure his $150,000/year plus COLA pension is funded by the taxpayers. And Chico Swim Association is nothing more than a satellite of CARD, run by the president of a public employees’ union? If you don’t get that, I don’t know how to explain it.
Suffice to say, we need to pay more attention to these public agencies and who is running them off the cliff. Lando and Worley are up in November. Lando originally got his seat because nobody ran against him. That can’t happen again, we need to find some competent candidates to take these people on. It’s only a two year term, with one or two meetings a month.
Meanwhile, Chico council members Randall Stone, Karl Ory, Sean Morgan and Ann Schwab are also up for re-election in November. Thank Goodness Karl Ory has announced he will not seek re-election – I don’t remember a nastier, more divisive person on council, unless it’s Randall Stone. I wish Stone would throw in the towel, he’s had his shot. So have Morgan and Schwab, for that matter. This is why I voted YES on Measure S in 2018 – some people need to be shown the door by way of term limits. Unfortunately, the measure allows for sitting council members to “start over” – Schwab gets two more terms, despite her many clueless years on council.
I don’t mind saying, this is a daunting commitment. For one thing, city council seats have gotten expensive, 10’s of thousands to run for a public office that only pays less than $20,000/year. But there is a very nice health insurance package – I’ll have to ask about that, I’m sure those have gone up since I last checked. Of course, there are two, very onerous meetings a month, and you’re on the hook for 4 years. Look at it like community service that insures your entire family for four years, maybe that sounds better.
At any rate, this is the conversation I want to have over the next few months – get your flashlight, and start looking for 10 honest people.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
And over the years CARD spent over $100,000 of our tax dollars on consultants to get a measure on the ballot.
These people are out to feather their nests. They are crooks.
In addition to the sales tax increase Ory was pushing for another tax increase (besides the sales tax increase). If he would have had his way you probably would have seen another property tax on the March ballot.
“At any rate, this is the conversation I want to have over the next few months – get your flashlight, and start looking for 10 honest people. ”
I think you’d have a hard time finding them in this community and even if you did the special interests would do everything they could to defeat them. You can bet the SEIU and the rest of the government employee unions would go berserk if anyone tried to reform the pensions.
But it’s got to be done.
But wow – $50,000 from the Service Employees International Union – which represents full-time employees of CARD?
That should be illegal. It shows just how corrupt the system is.
If the supporters of Measure A were honest they would admit this is a pension tax.
Local governments and school districts always tout these measures as necessary expenditures to rebuild crumbling schools, maintain overused parks and provide better police services, but don’t be fooled. Every new local tax these days is, essentially, a pension tax. These governments write the ballot summaries and provide “voter information,” so they are able to sway the discussion away from the true causes of their fiscal peril.
From
Californians face a wave of local tax hike measures
The economy has been booming over the last decade, which has provided local governments with a windfall in sales and property taxes. Despite the economic fat times, California cities have been complaining about their dire economic straits, with some of them even fearing insolvency unless something is done to change the financial trajectory.
What explains this dichotomy? The answer is simple. The costs of public employee compensation, especially pension and retiree-medical benefits, continue to climb exponentially and are consuming ever-larger portions of local general-fund budgets. One need only look at the Transparent California website to get a sense of the eye-popping levels of pay and benefits.
Instead of addressing this well-documented problem, state and local leaders have relied on a tried-and-true method: asking local taxpayers to increase taxes on themselves. California voters will see the latest evidence of this at the ballot box during the March 3 primary. The California Taxpayers Association (CalTax) recently published a list of more than 230 tax increases that will be on local ballots.
Read the entire article here https://www.ocregister.com/2020/02/04/californians-face-a-wave-of-local-tax-hike-measures/
Wonder how much the SEIU and other corrupt special interests will put into the sales tax increase. Probably a lot more than what they put in for CARD’s tax.
CARD and the city council spend our tax dollars on consultants for “surveys” and to propagandise the public for these tax increases, then the special interests spend tens of thousands more on them. That’s what we are up against. It’s a corrupt system, yet the vast majority of people in this community haven’t a clue this is going on or if they do they don’t care.
Good point – we need to start making plans to fight to city sales tax using what we have learned from the Measure A campaign.