Chico Taxpayers Association

Sheesh, I hate election districts – for a town this size, it’s literally divisive. Here’s the thing – all seven members of Chico City Council are allowed to make decisions on what happens in my district, so why am I only allowed to vote for one of them? The folks who threatened to sue said districts would prevent discrimination? You mean, it’s easier for a person to get elected, qualified or not, when there’s only about 5,000 votes at stake? In a town of over 100,000 persons who are directly affected by the actions of council, a candidate can get into office with less than 3,000 votes. That’s not representation, it’s a popularity contest.

Same goes for Chico Area Recreation District and Chico Unified Schools. I had neither on my ballot this election, so I don’t get to choose who has got their hand in my purse. But if you are voting for a school district rep this election, and you still have your ballot, here’s something you should take a look at. According to Dan Walters, California schools are not being evaluated on student performance. “Academic performance should have been the main focus of the California School Dashboard, but it is just one of its ‘multiple measures,’ thus allowing schools with sub-par test results to boast of high ratings due to their ancillary scores.”

And the chickens that hatched out of that little song and dance have come home to roost. Chico Unified scores have come down markedly since 2013, really exacerbated by the COVID school shut-down ordered by our school board. Here’s a Ballotpedia report about academic performance at CUSD and enrollment. SCROLL DOWN PAST THE CANDIDATE INFORMATION

https://ballotpedia.org/Chico_Unified_School_District,_California,_elections

See that? In 2013 68% of students in CUSD were performing “at or above proficiency level” That’s almost acceptable. And then down to 40% in 2020-21? Again, the school board made that decision to close the schools and then they made a decision to divvy up over $2 million in COVID emergency funding among themselves in the form of bonuses. Here’s the obvious question – bonuses for what? They weren’t coming to work. Parents were forced to find daycare, like NOW! And daycare isn’t school, so kids immediately started to slip behind in their functional skills.

So, whether or not you have a candidate for school board on your ballot, our school board needs to answer some questions – first being, how is that new bond going to accomplish anything? They got a $335 MILLION bond in 2020, where’d that go? To salary increases, look at these salaries.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/school-districts/butte/chico-unified/

Take a look at your superintendent’s salary – up over $20,000 in just two years, a $30,000 increase in total compensation for a grand total of $339,866/year. This woman was hired by school board members, her raises have been approved by school board members, and school board members have sat silently while academic performance in the district under her tenure has dropped a remarkable 28%.

Here’s something else that was pointed out to me and city council by a consultant named Chad Wolford – the school district is “management top-heavy” – look at all those management and assistant and deputy, etc – those people do nothing to raise your child’s test scores, they just add to the expense of education. Most of them work for THE TEACHERS, ensuring they get their salary increases and their benefits.

So, whether you’re voting or not, you pay for this crap. Ask some questions.

And don’t let the election screw your Halloween – have a scary day, do something fun, watch a scary movie, eat some popcorn, go trick-or-treating, don’t let this day pass without notice.

Butte County Supervisors recommend a $1 BILLION budget for 2024-25. This is an increase of $192 MILLION over 2023-24. Revenues include another $25 MILLION in Camp Fire Settlement funds. [PLEASE NOTE: The settlement money is coming from increased rates, the ratepayers, many of whose houses were burnt, are paying this settlement, not PG&E management or stock holders].

A neighbor asked, where does the county’s current funding go?

According to the budget, available online, salaries and benefits take 47% (=HALF A BILLION $$$) What does this mean for the county’s pension deficit?

“In June 2024, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported that Butte County’s pension deficit was growing and that the budgeted payment for the year was about $18 million. The deficit grew by $28 million over the 2021-22 period.”

“In gross dollars, the contribution would more than double, from $24.9 million in FY 2018-19 to $57 million in FY 2030-31.”

Employees are not being asked to pay higher contributions – “The County will accumulate funds by collecting additional amounts from Departmental budgets through the payroll process. ” Meaning, they budget more money to payroll to pay for the deficit, instead of hiring more employees as needed. There you see it – the POB they took out in 2004 ISN’T WORKING. The POB costs are in the millions, IN ADDITION to the MILLIONS they are paying to CalPERS.

Debt service on Pension Obligation Bonds established 2004 – $3.8 MILLION, with increasing payments through 2034. According to this report

https://www.buttecounty.net/DocumentCenter/View/1552/Pension-Strategy-PDF

“The Strategy” saves the county $350,000 a year. They spend millions in money that should be going to infrastructure and they only save $350,000/year?

Budget projections through 2029 show overall salary increases of $5 MILLION or more per year. You do the math, right? Every salary increase has a exponential effect on the pension deficit.

This is where the money is going – it’s like feeding blue jays.

NO on Butte County one cent sales tax measure H.

I got my mail-in ballot and it was pretty thrilling to fill in the bubble next to NO on Butte County Measure H, the one-cent sales tax. The next day I got this flyer in the mail. I thought it would be fun to talk about it.

Yeah their claims are weak, the usual threats to cut services if they don’t get the tax. But if you look into the budget, available here:

https://www.buttecounty.net/DocumentCenter/View/13430/Butte-County-Recommended-Budget-Fiscal-Year-2024-25-PDF?bidId=

you’ll see MISMANAGEMENT of a BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET. Look at it folks, a ONE BILLION DOLLAR RECOMMENDED BUDGET. Some items that caught my eye, were mentioned in the flyer.

“Maintain 911 Response Times,” and “attract and maintain qualified firefighters, EMT’s and Sheriff’s deputies,” for example. That’s a direct threat to cut our services. Well, here’s my suggestion – manage your staff better. Let’s just look at one page of Transparent California Butte County salaries and benefits.

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

Why does one staff sergeant more than double his regular pay – $114,848 – with $157,467 in overtime? There’s plenty of money in just one man’s compensation package to hire AT LEAST one other staffer. Look further down the page – Control F “sergeant” – just on the first page for Butte County Transparent California, I found five sergeants that make enough in overtime to pay another staffer. And then I noticed other staffers from the sheriff’s office – deputies. They all make enough in overtime to pay another staffer.

Why the hell are we paying these guys to do the work of two officers? How does that help our 911 Response Times?

And all this over-compensation adds up to one hell of a pension deficit. One item you don’t see on the county’s flyer – the amount they pay to service their Pension Obligation Bond – $3,854,000, up from last year by almost $100,000. That’s the amount of money required to pay back the principal and interest on a bond issue. A Pension Obligation Bond is money borrowed to pay money owed to CalPERS. They say they will save money because the bond is at a lower interest rate than the actual CalPERS debt. They also claim to invest the bond proceeds to offset the bond service, but I didn’t find anything about proceeds from those investments. I have to ask – how much are they actually saving? I can’t find a report about that. What I see here, is that those bonds cost upwards of $3 million a year, increasing payments every year, IN ADDITION TO MONEY OWED TO CALPERS. Folks, they just took out a new credit card to pay off their old credit card. Then they went about spending money like they weren’t already in debt, handing out raises every year and creating new positions.

Again, I voted NO on H because these people can’t manage the budget they already gave themselves.

Maybe next time we’ll talk about the $97 MILLION Behavioral Health Department Budget. That’s almost a tenth of the budget to “Address homelessness, mental health and addiction challenges...” A classic case of throwing money at a problem you are not qualified to solve.

Ballots are on their way, I’ve already received my voter pamphlets. This is when the campaigns will ramp up.

So tonight Sheriff Kory Honea will be giving his pitch for the county’s one-cent sales tax Measure H at a local community center. Here’s what I would expect to hear – threats that services will be cut if we do not approve Measure H.

Here’s a good question for Honea – if the county is so broke, how come your salary has gone up over $30,000 between 2021 and 2023?

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Kory%20Honea

Since 2018 Honea’s salary has gone from $181,555.00 to $223,423.00, all the while county officials have been crying that they can’t provide essential services. It always starts with the library, now they’re saying they can’t provide adequate police or fire without a one-cent sales tax.

“Vote Yes on H to maintain our public safety services, fire stations, libraries and way of life in Butte County.”

They’re threatening us, even our “way of life” – what does that mean?

“In recent years we have been hit hard by the Camp and North Complex fires, floods and droughts.” What, no COVID?

What nerve they have to whine about this stuff – they forget to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars they’ve received in fire recovery funding, American Rescue Act funding, and disaster relief for the Oroville dam scare. Where’d that go? Well, for one, the board voted to use millions in Camp Fire funding to pay down their pension deficit, even though Bill Connelly told me they instituted an illegal Pension Obligation Bond in 2008. The pension deficit is still the county’s largest standing debt, and growing exponentially with every pay increase.

Think that was on Honea’s mind when they forced that last $20,000 raise down his throat? Think he tried to turn them down?

These people have plenty of money to work with, they just can’t seem to make very good budget decisions. Including the annual decision they make to raise their own salaries. These people do not give a rat’s ass about the rest of us.

Here’s a common claim they make – Honea will repeat this tonight – “Measure H Requires Strict Accountability“. Excuse me, that is total BULLSHIT. The measure states that the funds will go into the General Fund, which has no accountability and no restrictions on spending.

Yes, this is a “general” measure, meaning it only needs 50%+1 (that’s literally one person more than 50% of registered voters). The reasons they did not ask for a 2/3’s measure are, first, they already lost a simple measure, they know they can’t get 2/3’s. But more important, the funds from a 2/3’s measure would be restricted to a specific use like police or fire, but not just “public safety”. They don’t want restrictions on spending, because they want to use it to pay down their biggest debt – the pension deficit. They know the voters wouldn’t agree to that – the proof there is that they instituted a Pension Obligation Bond without putting it on the ballot. That’s illegal but it would take a lawsuit to overturn it. They knew that.

I think they know they’re in trouble, people have been asking pointy questions about Honea’s visit tonight. Some people are questioning the use of county employees to push a tax measure, others are questioning the county’s spending habits. So, Honea and others are spreading out in the community to bully and threaten the voters to “get on board”.

I’m not a tax-hater – I pay my taxes, thankyouverymuch. I do demand the right to question how they are spent, and there’s too many questions to slide this one through.

Again, NO on Butte County Measure H

Chico Unified has another bond on the November ballot, Measure C. I just want to remind people how they spend money down at the school district. Here’s an excerpt from a post I made in 2021, when four members of Chico Unified School Board were up for recall over a decision to spend COVID relief money on their own bonuses – yes, three of those four board members were also school district employees, two of whom were teachers who benefitted directly from the decision to hand out the bonuses.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/tag/chico-unified-school-district-hands-out-almost-2-5m-in-bonuses/

“I’ve got a few notes lately from anxious parents and even some administrators about a recent school board decision to spend $2,463,606. on bonuses for school district staff, on the heels of a controversial decision to keep schools open only half days for the rest of the term.“

This decision disturbed me because not only had these teachers been fully paid throughout the COVID shutdown but had called numerous times to close the classrooms over their fears of COVID. But they not only kept collecting paychecks, they gleefully accepted bonuses out of money that should have gone to help the kids and their families.

Just in case you think teachers are underpaid, here’s a look at salaries in CUSD – they are only updated to 2022, remember these people get an annual raise, it’s in their contracts.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/school-districts/butte/chico-unified/

The salaries go up while the test scores go down – just half of CUSD students are performing up to par in English skills (reading and writing) and less than half are up to par in math skills (‘rithmetic).

https://caaspp.edsource.org/sbac/chico-unified-04614240000000

What are you sending your kids to school for? To have their heads messed around over gender? We need to ask ourselves – what is school there for, and how much should it cost?

Did you know, Superintendent Kelly Staley, a member of the $300K Club, is set to retire this year?

Here’s a report about over $368,000 spent on ONE electric school bus – remember folks, we fund the CEC too.

NO on Measure C.

As my husband and I were driving through Downtown the other day we noticed the Plaza was fenced off (again) and there were workers and wow – pest control trucks – all over the place. I found this newsblurb about it –

City Manager Mark Sorenson said the city was addressing “public health issues and maintenance needs.” He listed the needs as spraying trees with insecticide, conducting pest control for cockroaches, cleaning and decontamination.

The last time they did this, is was about fleas, now cockroaches. That must be some infestation. Chico has a native cockroach – the “American” cockroach. These are natural animals that live mostly outside, I’ve never had one in my house, and rarely even see them in the yard. I’ve seen them a lot in Downtown Chico at night, scurrying along sidewalks. What they’re talking about in the above article are German brown cockroaches, a non-native pest that spreads with people and infests areas of human filth.

https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/german-cockroaches-101/#:~:text=German%20cockroaches%20prefer%20warm%20and,cardboard%20boxes%20and%20secondhand%20appliances.

“Yes, humans transport German cockroaches through travel and transportation of infested items…” including clothing and shoes. German brown cockroaches also carry little hitchhikers – salmonella bacteria, a common cause of food-bourn illness, especially in the restaurant sector.

The first thing I had to ask was, when they fumigate an outdoor area, do the bugs run and spread out to restaurants all over Downtown?

No they don’t just die and lay there, they run. They’re tough, having been around for millions of years. “… treatments require more time to be effective. Plus, some products take time to kick in. You may see roaches for a week or two for slow-acting treatments until they eventually taper out… Yes, after spraying German cockroaches, they may move elsewhere.” Which begs the question – what about Bidwell Park?

Another thing I noticed was that as the camps and the plaza have been “cleared” the campers are right back in areas that have previously been “cleared”. Right back in Bidwell Park, the trash piles already growing. Will there be more fumigations? Are they using Measure H funds to pay for this?