Chico Taxpayers Association

I wonder what’s been happening in Los Angeles, because the media seems to have dropped that story. The Dude sent me this interesting piece a couple of days ago –

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cost-restoring-order-los-angeles

“The Overtime Epidemic – The City of Los Angeles is no stranger to excessive overtime pay. Open the Books reported last year that 20 city employees earned at least $300,000 in overtime pay in 2023. That’s before even factoring in their base salaries.“

At last the dirty little secret is out in the open.

But overtime costs reached new heights in 2024, with the city spending a record $1.1 billion on extra hours. That’s enough money to pay off the city’s entire budget deficit. In overtime alone, five people earned more than the $400,000 salary we pay the President of the United States.

Oh yeah – how about Butte County? Here’s a post I did last fall when they were telling us they needed more sales tax money –

Another claim the city of Chico and the county of Butte are constantly making is that they are short of public safety employees. This next paragraph has played out in agendas from both the city and county over the past 5 years. Early retires (cops and fire are allowed to retire with their highest year’s salary at age 50) exacerbate the staff and budget shortages, followed by the usual poormouth claim that we need more money to pay more staff higher salaries. So (bust a snicker) we can “attract good candidates...”

Hey, that’s not working! Our public safety employees are still self-important entitled assholes who put their own safety ahead of the people they are supposed to serve. Now they’re OVERPAID self-important entitle assholes, and that just makes them bigger assholes. And, as explained in the next paragraph, it puts our city and our town, and our entire state, farther back in the financial shitter.

“A revenue pinch amid Covid lockdowns led to a spate of early retirements that have exacerbated the need for extra-hours pay. And as the Los Angeles Police Department faces rioting, the force’s ranks are at their smallest in two decades—but the payroll is still growing.“

Folks, that’s why they call them PIGS. Ever watched a pig eat? Well, right now, we’re watching our local law enforcement eat us out of house and home.

LA is screwed.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-taxpayers-foot-millions-peaceful-anti-ice-protests

The violent and destructive Los Angeles anti-ICE protests cost taxpayers $32 million, according to a report by the city budget chief.

Controller Kenneth Mejia posted the figures on X, detailing what the money from local taxpayers will be funding. City taxpayers are on the hook for emergency services, cleanup and public property damage, all stemming from the protests that turned into riots, according to Mejia’s post.

More than $29 million, or 92% of the cost, is for the Los Angeles Police Department’s response. Part of these funds will also cover the cost of the citywide tactical alerts.

No wonder LAPD didn’t want the National Guard!

This is happening where YOU live. Contact your city council and county reps and ask them just what the hell you have received in return.

Earlier this month, the city of Chico agreed to pay for extra cancer screening for Chico PD and Fire. The first thing I realized was, the city (the taxpayers) already provide these employees with health insurance, really nice insurance, better than the average taxpayer can afford. Not to mention, salaries of $100,000+/ year. But we also have to pay for extra cancer screenings?

Here I’ll ask, where’s the free screenings for those of us affected by the Park Fire? How come we treat these people like sacred cows while the rest of us struggle to pay for health care? Or just don’t get any?

The California budget is billions in deficit because of entitled, self-centered, GREEDY employees. Public safety employees get the best salaries and benefits while paying unrealistic shares toward these plush benefits. You ask them, how much can we give, and they always answer “MORE MORE MORE!”, threatening service cuts if they don’t get what they want.

The public employee unions have brought forward California Assembly Bill 1383, which essentially undoes the reforms created by PEPRA. The Public Employees Pension Reform Act of 2013 raised the age at which employees could retire and required public employees hired after 2013 to pay at least 50 percent of normal costs of their own benefits. It also prohibited public employers from paying any of the required employee contribution.

In past the city of Chico actually paid the entire cost of pensions for management and most of the cost for public safety. Meaning those employees – the highest paid – contributed NOTHING toward their generous benefits packages until 2013. That is a big reason why CalPERS continues to be drastically under-funded and why cities all over California are having budget crises and raising taxes. PEPRA was not quite as far as I’d like to have taken it, but at least it was something. AB 1383 puts us right back on the Road to Perdition.

https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1383

PEPRA requires each retirement system that offers a defined benefit plan for safety members of the system to use one of 3 formulas for safety members, 2% at age 57, 2.5% at age 57, or 2.7% at age 57.

This bill(1383) would establish new retirement formulas, for employees first hired on or after January 1, 2026, as 2.5% at age 55, 2.7% at age 55, or 3% at age 55.

PEPRA requires all public employees to pay at least 50 percent of normal costs and prohibits public employers from paying any of the required employee contribution.

This bill(1383) would authorize an employer and employee, through the collective bargaining process, to agree to terms in a memorandum of understanding where the employer pays a portion of employee contribution.

Jerry Brown gave us PEPRA, so I was not so surprised to hear that he criticizes 1383 – thanks to The Dude for sending me this piece from Cal Matters.

Just an end note – neither police nor fire are listed on the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the United States. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports, loggers have a more chances of getting injured, even killed, than either police or fire. So do “roofers, fishing and hunting workers, construction helpers, aircraft pilots and flight engineers, truck drivers, refuse and recyclable material collectors, structural iron and steel workers, underground mining machine operators, and agricultural workers. ”

We’ll keep an eye on this one.

I was looking at a friend’s Facebook page, when I saw a notification from the City of Chico Facebook – “City of Chico Celebrates second anniversary of Measure H”, insinuating that all that roadwork on the southeast end of town is being paid for with Measure H money. No, it’s not, it’s being paid for with state and federal grants of all kinds, as well as ADA money. Don’t take my word for it – read the budget yourself. It’s good for you, like cod liver oil. We also pay for the fulltime employee tasked with pumping out bullshit on the city Facebook page!

Type “pension” into the F-search and prepare to have your mind blown. You’ll see that they siphon the CalPERS “catch-up” payments out of every department fund, including the Measure H fund. This year the payment was over $18 million – that’s more than half of what they claimed they would receive from Measure H.

Measure H is in trouble. When I read the comments on the city’s posting I was glad to see that I’m not the only one who sees through the bullshit. Here’s a sampling, verbatim.

“Stop building new roads for developers and fix the potholes on the existing roads! Drive around Chico and see how many “invisible” crosswalks you see…”

“There was no reason to spend $24 million widening that seldom used road except to support Valleys Edge…” Yes, the developers should pay for work necessary to support their subdivisions, like all those new entryways poured into that field alongside Bruce. They also used Measure H money to resurface (NAME THE ROAD)

“They will be using some Home Depot asphalt going around in city trucks patching holes. I’ve seen 2 guys going around a couple weeks back and not even 2 days later the holes were back open…“

Actually, they typically use the leftover asphalt (“slobbers”) from the new roads they’re putting into new subdivisions and apartment complexes around town. They have to get the asphalt out of the truck before it gets hard, or it will screw up the equipment, so they dump it wherever they can. And then it’s all over passing cars, and the hole is back within a week.

“That $54m could go into fixing a lot of potholes around town. We are taxed to the bone and yet not one single improvement has been made. Roads are crap…”

“Want an itemized list of where the money is really going, millions of dollars were allocated for camp fire victims but spent on project in Chico.” ( NOTE: in the 2024-25 budget they are still listing victim’s fire fund money, claiming that the city was a victim because of evacuees, but that the money can’t be spent on regular budget items like streets or sewer – does that make sense?)

“can they show us the receipts? Id like to know EXACTLY where the money is spent.” (Look at the budget.)

“lol is this a joke it was suppose to go to increasing fire department and law enforcement – maybe have more than 3 jail sheriff at night” (here is some obvious confusion with county measure H – did they choose ‘H’ for both measures so there would be this kind of confusion? We’ll never know. )

One person suggests “let’s not piss it all away...” to which another answers, “they will“

I didn’t get every comment, but I sure as hell didn’t see any positive comments about the way the city is spending Measure H money. Looks like Chico citizens have next to no faith or trust in their city “leaders”. And yeah, I looked at the commenters’ facebook pages – this is a pretty cross-cut section of Chicoans, from working class people who are having serious problems trying to pay their bills, to well-heeled people who have to drive their nice cars over shredded streets to woke idiots who just hate the “conservatives” no matter what they do. People are PISSED OFF.

And city staff obviously feels the heat. This is the reason for those fucking insulting signs – “Thank you Chico Voters!” “Your measure H dollars at work”. That’s a lie, and you can see it in the budget. This is why the city has resorted to, again, spending taxpayer dollars to sell a tax measure to the taxpayers.

Don’t eat shit, demand better. You get what you will accept.

I read the findings and recommendations from the Ad Hoc housing committee, and then I read an agenda report recommending raising developer fees, AGAIN, and I had to wonder if anybody else ever reads these reports. Talk about contradictions.

The committee recommends more density with lower parking requirements, and then complains about the neighbors complaining. They recommend raising densities in low density zones, which of course is another invitation for the neighbors to complain. They recommend a pedestrian-friendly town, and then they raise the cost of putting sidewalks in your neighborhood.

Here’s something that should bring neighborhood complaints, referendums, and lawsuits – the city claims no responsibility for street improvements in existing neighborhoods. They shoe-horn in these crappily built subdivisions, dig up the street to make the sewer connection, then slap a crappy patch job that guarantees a future pothole, without offering ANYTHING to the rest of the neighborhood. Some developers, and most of the city staff, don’t give a flying fuck about the neighbors, it’s all about the money.

I often wonder, why the city of Chico is so far behind with Americans with Disabilities Act (1993) requirements. I wonder why so many neighborhood streets are completely crapped out, people who’ve been annexed for 20+ years with no sewer main, so drainage, no sidewalks… Unfortunately, in California, property owners are responsible for drains and sidewalks. Yes, you pay property taxes, year after year they go up, and you find out you actually have to pay extra if you want any service. And here’s the kiss afterwards – the city can raise the fees whenever they want.

So excuse me if I find the new Ad Hoc housing committee to be another example of wasteful spending on another layer of bureaucracy that never seems to achieve it’s stated goal. Staff time went into the report and the stupid Power Point Presentation, and that’s just allocated on to the cost of housing.