HJTA: “As local governments demand that voters approve higher taxes, we thought it would be interesting to see how they’re spending the tax dollars you already give them.” With a one-cent sales tax measure on the county ballot, we need to ask ourselves – how many Butte County employees are members of the $300K Club?

Suzanne asked, “Upcoming (Nov 2024) ballot will have another Measure H to vote on. So, Chico will have another sales tax increase??? Say it isn’t so“

I emoted on that briefly here –

I asked the question “for what”. Today I read an article in the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association newsletter “Taxing Times” that answered that question.

Tim Bittle, Chief Counsel of HJTA writes, “As local governments demand that voters approve higher taxes, we thought it would be interesting to see how they’re spending the tax dollars you already give them.” He tells the story of a Bay Area Housing Bond (covering nine Bay Area counties) that was dropped from the November ballot because polls showed the measure would lose.

I think a lot of voters would agree that “The greatest need of most local governments is not to build housing, but to balance their budgets – budgets bloated with high employee salary, health insurance and pension costs.” But I wasn’t surprised to read that in the Bay Area’s proposed bond district, “more than 11,000 county and city employees receive $300,000 or more in annual compensation, in fact, a large percentage of that receive more than $400,000/year.”

So here’s Chico already having passed a one-cent sales tax measure, and now Butte County wants to put another cent on top of that. I hear Suzanne asking me right now, how many Chico and Butte County staffers are members of the $300K Club? Good question Suzanne, thank you.

I always check Transparent California because their figures are mostly up-to-date and have compared favorably with the Secretary of States publicpay.gov site.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2023/butte-county/

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2023/chico/

There you have 8 county and 6 city employees who are members of the $300K Club. How about the county staff sergeant who turns a $114,000 salary into almost $450,000 in compensation – does he live at the sheriff station? Look at the compensation packages, wow, just imagine going to the hospital with that kind of insurance.

Transparent California also lists the individual’s Pension Debt, meaning, their share of the awesome doom that hangs over our local government finances. The unrealistic employee payroll contribution isn’t spit on the griddle, especially with the compounding interest on the unpaid portion. And they want to stick the taxpayers with the big nasty mess they’ve left. Like that roommate that never kicks in on the groceries. Or the rent. Or the utility bills.

The payments are siphoned out of every department, at the expense of infrastructure and other services. The city of Chico budgeted $18 million toward this year’s “catch-up” payment. Next year it will be over $20 million, and more every year.

Adding gas to the fire are the constant salary increases – after the voters passed the city’s Measure H, our manager and his head secretary took two salary increases adding up to 11% over the next year. Head Secretary will be making $198,000 in salary, which will add her to the $300K Club.

So, do you think we should give them more money? Of course you know my answer – NO on H.