Archive | December, 2023

There’s more than one way to fund the government – how much do you know about where your government gets and spends their money?

31 Dec

2023 out, 2024 in – this year I hope to continue to keep the foxes who are running our henhouse, well, at least somewhat nervous.

We’ve all heard California is one of the highest tax states in the union. It even has an effect on the quality of sports teams you get. My family enjoys baseball, whenever our son calls, we talk about the latest news. A player named Shohei Ohtani, has caught our attention, because he is fighting Gavin Newsom’s tax-happy agenda by deferring his $700 mil contract, essentially, until he retires and moves out of state.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/shohei-ohtani-dodgers-contract-opt-out-specifici-change-dodger-personnel.html

The good thing for the Dodgers is they get to use the money now to hire more good players. My son remarked that this will help balance the league – right now, he says, Florida is snatching up all the good players because they have no income tax. We’ll see what happens.

Did you know, all states have different ways of funding themselves? Did you know, nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) operate with no income tax – how do they do it?

9 Badass States Without State Income Taxes (and How They Get Away with It)

“…[income] tax-free states make up for the absence of income tax by charging other types of taxes, such as sales tax, corporate income tax, and property tax.” No, not all states charge all the same taxes, and some states rely on higher property, corporate and sales tax than other states. Sheesh, let’s all move to Wyoming – …” neither personal income taxes nor corporate income taxes. Property taxes and sales taxes are also low…” 

California is one of the higher tax states – not only does California have allllll the taxes, some of them are also higher than other states that charge the same taxes. Look at this article from US News –

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/states-with-the-lowest-taxes

Let’s look at Chico.

Click to access final_budget_for_web_1.pdf

Here’s the latest approved budget for city of Chico

Sales Tax $29,200,000; District Sales Tax $24,000,000; Property Tax 12,467,330; Property Tax in Lieu of VLF 9,800,000; Utility Users Tax 8,662,000; Transient Occupancy Tax 3,800,000; Other Taxes 4,679,400; All Other Revenues 1,583,901; Total Revenues $94,192,631.

I learned something new – I read an article about “Property Tax in Lieu of Vehicle License Fees” – read that and we’ll do a quiz next time. This is why the city keeps building more housing – the more they raise their property tax valuations the more VLF they get. The best way to raise property tax valuations is build new stuff, because you raise the base.

As far as where it’s going – Salaries and Benefits $52,050,314, over half the budget. And that’s just salaries – with all their additional costs, gear and such, the cops and fire take over 50% of the budget. I’m waiting to hear back from Dave Waddell about the amount of money we give the cops for “uniforms”, and how much of that goes to their personal gun hoards.

And Happy New Year to you folks out there. I hope you will make a resolution to guard your constitutional rights and make sure your elected officials are doing the job they’ve been entrusted with. As soon as somebody knows you’re not looking, it’s just too easy for them to fudge. We really owe it to the people we’ve put in these positions to help them do their jobs – just think of it that way!

Dave Waddell asks the city for public information, city spends $95,700 trying not to comply, but ends up giving him the answer anyway. Your tax money means nothing to Chico City Council.

21 Dec

I got this note from Chico SOL editor Dave Waddell regarding his efforts to find out how much money the city of Chico is spending on attorneys to keep the public “from finding out about city abuses,” like out-of-line police actions that have landed the city in court.

“This City Council wastes countless sums on attorney’s fees trying to prevent the public from finding out about city abuses. In 2022, after trying for many months to get the City to follow the law, I was forced to sue the City for records that were clearly public related to a string of police killings in Chico (mostly on Mike O’Brien’s deadly watch as police chief). Once sued, the City almost immediately started forking over records (slowly) and agreed to pay my attorney’s fees, which were about $43,600. Recently, I submitted a Public Records Act request to determine how much the City wasted on its OWN attorneys in defending against my lawsuit. They’ve slow-walked giving me those records, and I still don’t have them all. But from what they have sent me to date, I know the “conservative” City Council crapped away at least $45,575 in fees to their L.A.-based legal conglomerate. That means they wasted a total of about $90,000 to try unsuccessfully to cover up how the Police Department killed on several occasions. As I said, that figure could go higher once they finally relinquish all the records I’ve requested. Why not just follow THE LAW on public records and save the poor taxpayers $90,000 (probably more). Yep, they definitely need tax increases if they’re going to keep this up (and they are!)“

You think you live in a nice little town, and then you find out it’s just because you go to bed early. And all the money – you know, there are plenty of people who live on $45,000/year or less, like my husband and I. They made Waddell sue, which is just outrageous to me. I’m hearing what Sean Morgan said, ringing in my ears – “$100,000 is nothing…” Yes, I took that out of the context of his full comment… “to secure Measure H.” But he meant what he said – it’s tax money, it’s nothing to him to spend 10’s of thousands covering up mistakes he’s made. And I believe the rest of council feels same, given the way they spend money.

Waddell came back with an update – he has the final total amount the city spend on attorneys to keep the public out of public business.

“I wanted to provide an update about my post on City spending to thwart releasing public records the PD and the City Council find embarrassing. In 2020, I sought public records on an epidemic of Chico police killings. After the Police Department withheld, destroyed and unlawfully blacked out some records, I finally and reluctantly sued in 2022. The City quickly caved and paid my attorney’s fees of $43,637 and provided the requested records (most of them anyway). Now, I’ve been able to fully document through heavily redacted records how much the City squandered on its own attorneys trying to keep those records secret: $52,090. That’s a grand total of more than $95,700 in tax revenue down the drain. What angers me most is that amount of tax money is apparently like loose change to them. I’ll keep you updated on future obstruction because, as you know, these folks ain’t a changin’ when it comes to expensive and unlawful cover-ups.“

Thanks Dave, I don’t know how you do it, but we’re glad to have you.

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California Governor and legislature are trying to take us back 240 years – they want to tax us without our vote. That’s taxation without representation.

17 Dec

When you’re making important decisions regarding ballot measures, I hope you’ll study up on the issues, read information from both sides. You might even try to find some impartial sources. Here’s an pretty fair article from Oregon University’s Jefferson Public Radio about the California Taxpayer Protection Act. Oregon has no dog in this fight, so it’s good to hear what they have to say about it.

https://www.ijpr.org/politics-government/2023-11-20/why-newsom-and-california-lawmakers-want-the-state-supreme-court-to-remove-a-2024-ballot-proposition

League of California Cities, the California Democrats, Governor Newsom and other opponents of the TPA claim the TPA shouldn’t even be allowed on the ballot.

“In late September, Newsom, the Legislature and former California Democratic Party chair John Burton filed an emergency petition asking the California Supreme to invalidate it. Their main argument is that the measure is so sweeping that it is a constitutional revision, rather than a constitutional amendment.“

Meanwhile, Democrats in the legislature are trying to amend the state constitution to require only 50%+1 approval for tax measures (ACA 1) and only 2/3’s passage for taxpayer protection measures (ACA 13). Those are both legislative amendments with NO VOTER APPROVAL.

Excuse me – what a pile of fucking hypocrites and just plain RACKETEERS! Their claim that this measure will make it harder to raise taxes is absolutely true – but not impossible like they’re claiming. It will just require more of us to sign on the handing our money down the toilet, than just our neighbor and another guy. Read further.

The ballot proposition would require voters to sign off on any new state tax or tax increase. It would also raise the threshold for voter approval of citizen-proposed taxes in cities, towns and counties from a simple majority to a two-thirds vote.

The measure would also reclassify many regulatory fees as taxes, which would subject them to the same requirements as taxes in order to be increased. Currently, some state and local governing bodies have delegated authority to agencies – such as municipal departments – to increase certain fees.

Here’s the real threat, especially in Chico, where the city just foisted a sewer “rate change mechanism) through mailed ballot followed by a 50%+1 sales tax increase.

If approved, the proposition would apply retroactively to all state and local tax increases since January 1, 2022 with a remedy period. That could mean a reversal of new local taxes that aren’t able to meet the requirements, which has raised alarm from the League of California Cities and a handful of mayors.

So wake up, look around – our Democratic Governor and his stooges are trying to tax us without proper representation, meaning your vote, your approval. Your answer: NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

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Chico Mayor Andrew Coolidge: “The Taxpayer Protection Act is dead on arrival if it makes it to the ballot.”

13 Dec

Yep, the city of Chico is worried about the Taxpayer Protection Act. They know it will overturn the unconstitutional sales tax increase they passed with only 52.79% voter approval. So concerned that they held a “special” off-schedule Finance Committee meeting. City Manager Mark Sorensen needed a recommendation for next Tuesday’s council meeting.

The recommendation he was looking for was to spend $100,000 writing a new measure for the 2024 ballot. That’s in addition to money they’ve spent polling the public. Armed with their polls, they plan to make some changes – Sorensen said they will consider adding a 10 year sunset clause. When I asked for confirmation of that statement he emphasized “consider“, as though we are spoiled children asking for another helping of pudding.

I like Sean Morgan – he can be charming and personable. But when he said “$100,000 is NOTHING to secure $24 million…” I realized he is not qualified for the position. Morgan is too given to hysteria, he’s too led by staff (he now calls Sorensen “Skipper”), and he changes his mind and flakes under pressure.

Years ago, in the same room, when Sorensen was still on council, and Orme was manager, both Sorensen and Morgan said they wouldn’t support a simple measure, they wanted a 2/3’s measure, Morgan saying he wanted the voters to make the decision. They didn’t want to take the heat! Now he’s willing to throw down another (at least) $100,000 to save Measure H? Think Sean – we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you’d come up with a better measure and called for 2/3’s approval.

Mayor Andrew Coolidge, always the idiot, declared gleefully that the TPA “is dead on arrival if it does make the ballot…” Sorensen confirmed that a judge had agreed to hear the governor’s lawsuit to keep the TPA off the ballot, but agreed with Morgan – “we can’t take that chance...”

They want to spend $100,000 on a do-over. I say NO. First of all, measure H received less than 53% approval. Second, sales tax receipts are still going down. Despite their Pollyanna projections, people have not recovered from their imposed COVID restrictions, inflation is a real thing, and taxes on everything just add gas to the fire. Newsom’s ridiculous projections – like the city of Chico claiming they will get $24 million off a one cent sales tax – resulted in a $68 BILLION deficit.

Chico is in trouble because of poor decisions. Look how they’re spending the Camp Fire and COVID emergency money. And this decision – $100,000 is literally NOTHING to these people. New hires at over $100,000/year, increasing the police and fire budgets around every corner, skating rink operates at a loss every year, another remodel for Downtown – they don’t have the sense they were born with, as far as I’m concerned.

They’re desperate for this measure because the city is drowning in bad decisions. A new sales tax measure is a bad decision, and we’ll pay for it. Let your council rep know, you support the TPA, and why. Tell them you won’t support another sales tax measure, and why. Write a letter to the paper, I plan to.

Dead on arrival? What kind of way is that to talk about a measure drafted by the people?

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City plans to pour more Camp Fire relief money into Downtown – what about the rest of town?

7 Dec

I was raking up a mess of leaves and clutter out in front of my house the other day when I realized our neighborhood has been annexed to the city for over 20 years and we still have none of the services they promised when they nailed us. All we got out of it was Utility Tax. My street has no drainage, no sidewalks, and about once a year a transformer blows up out on the street and shuts power off for a few blocks.

No, it’s not just my neighborhood. Before he left, Mark Orme admitted that Chico internet is hit and miss. It’s true, all over town, people are paying for internet that is not supported by any infrastructure. I just went out the other day to buy a gift for a friend from a shop located in an East Avenue shopping center, and it took almost half an hour to ring up my purchases because the shop had poor internet. The woman fussed and apologized, but she finally decided to write out my bill by hand because she couldn’t get her computer to respond. It’s Christmas folks, how many hours will you spend in line waiting for the internet?

According to former city manager Orme, the city does not have the infrastructure in place. It’s true, as you drive around town, you find whole neighborhoods where people still have to make phone calls from their front yard, and their kids can’t use their computers to do school work.

So the city of Chico has decided to use hundreds of thousands in Camp Fire relief money to do another remodel of Downtown Chico. According to my council rep, “complete replacement of the sewer, power and water lines would be part of this project.” This after former manager Orme had announced the Camp Fire refugees had put undue strain on city services, not just Downtown. So why is the money being spent Downtown, on stuff like parklet for bars?

There’s more outrage to the new Downtown remodel, we’ll talk about that next time. This is just another reason to overturn Measure H, as far as I’m concerned.

Are you comfortable with 50% + 1 of your neighbors hitting you up with a tax?

4 Dec

I was pretty disgusted with a recent letter to the ER from frequent contributor Mark S. Gailey. For one thing, it wasn’t even original, he’d obviously lifted most of his letter from the California League of Cities propaganda. Come on Mark, I think you got better game than that! Let’s talk about why opponents are afraid of this measure.

I have to laugh at this little stretch – “CLC “believes the purpose of the initiative would be to create major loopholes for corporations.” If you read the text of the measure and the analysis on Ballotpedia, maybe you can figure out where they got that claim. I just don’t get it, it hardly makes sense. All I see in the text of the TPA is a restoration of taxpayers’ and voters’ rights that have been slowly whittled down by the California legislature without any input or vote of the public. And now the legislature – those people who are supposed to represent the voters – is joining Gavin Newsom in a lawsuit to keep the TPA off the ballot.

Can you kids say F-AAAA-SHIST? I wrote a letter about it.

California League of Cities claims the Taxpayer Protection Act “will upend and jeopardize revenue streams” and “residents will get less.”

According to Ballotpedia, “A ‘yes‘ vote supports amending the state constitution to define all state and local levies, charges, and fees as taxes and to require new state taxes proposed by the state legislature to be enacted via a two-thirds legislative vote and voter approval and new local taxes to be enacted via a two-thirds vote of the electorate.”

Yes, they’re afraid of the 2/3’s requirement, because voters have lost confidence in their local and state leaders and are rightfully leery of tax increases. Measure H squeezed in with only 52.72% voter approval. Are we comfortable with a slim majority like that, when we all have to pay it? Are we all comfortable with how they’ve been spending it? How do you feel about being threatened with “less”?

CLC “believes the purpose of the initiative would be to create major loopholes for corporations.”

Nowhere in this measure is anything about loopholes for corporations, read it yourself – why believe hearsay?

Opponents are so worried about taxpayers exercising their rights, they’ve not only put a competing measure on the ballot, requiring voter’s rights measures to get 2/3’s approval, but the governor has mounted a lawsuit to keep the TPA off the ballot.

Why are the governor, legislators, and public employee unions afraid of us?

I was at the store the other day – did you know there’s still a tax on tea? Think about that. ‘

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

Next time I’d like to talk about levies, charges and fees – for example, were you really comfortable with the “sewer rate change” or the Vina GSA fees and the way they were enacted? Would that change under the Taxpayer Protection Act? I’ll do some research and get back to you.

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Why is American Rescue Funding going toward parklets and other sundries when the sewer lines Downtown are badly in need of replacement?

3 Dec

Tomorrow City of Chico Internal Affairs Committee (Reynolds, Winslow and Vanoverbeek) will be discussing use of American Rescue Plan Funding to do more work Downtown. They want wider sidewalks, more street parking (isn’t that a contradiction?), parklets, and other notions, but what I’m not seeing is any plan or funding for the sewer lines.

So I’m trying a new tack – I’m sending them a note, and I’m trying to be nice. Shut up!

Hi, 

I see no mention in this report of a need for overhaul of the sewer pipes, which have been found to be leaking on at least two occasions I’m aware of. In one instance, a leak in a city irrigation line collapsed the sidewalk in front of the former Kona’s sandwich shop, and in another incident, sewage from a misconnected pipe originating at Tin Roof Bakery was found in Little Chico Creek. Kona’s, a very popular eatery and bread supplier for other sandwich shops, left Downtown. 

Kasey, I think it was you who brought it up at a past meeting.

Before you do all this work to the surface, shouldn’t you fix the sewer? Before Sacramento was able to add the stadium to their Downtown, they had to do massive work on their sewer system, it took years, and shut down whole parts of Downtown Sacramento. I know because I was a student at Sac State at the time. That’s why I came back here and finished at Chico, it was too onerous to get from my Downtown Sacto apartment to the Sac campus.  

Before you use American Rescue money on these proposed projects, I would like to see a total overhaul of Downtown sewer. I also have heard from people around town who are still waiting for sewer lines on their streets – one woman complains the streets adjacent to her block have had sewer lines for years and the city has been promising her little neighborhood hook up for as long. 

This plan has a priority problem. Your new Downtown would not look so hot when the pipes back up, as they have. You should ask staff, how many businesses Downtown have complained about the sewer backing up in their business? 

Just a thought, thanks for listening – Juanita Sumner

The meeting is tomorrow at 1 pm, I’ll let you know if I hear anything.