I was looking into the proposed sewer rate increase for Chico and I found a discussion on Redditt that indicated people are pretty pissed off. I had read about a proposed 65% increase, but at last week’s meeting, they were saying like a 400% increase. We’re looking at the average customer paying almost $100 a month for sewer service. I knew that sewer “rate mechanism change” would be bad. This is what the real cost of living is about – you can’t just build more housing, you have to consider all the other costs.
I have believed for a long time that city leaders just want working class people out of town. One council and staff after another have tried to turn Chico – starting with Downtown – into a Destination! High-end restaurants, outdoor dining, now alcohol allowed outside – that’s not a family atmosphere, and the only working people they want Downtown are table waiters, bartenders, and cashiers.
Shop owners are leaving in droves, citing the parking kiosks, but I think that was just the last nail in the coffin. For years downtown businesses have been paying higher rent for less services, even while paying into a protection racket known as the Downtown Business Association. Remember when “Community Development Director” Leo DePaola was sticking Downtown businesses with rapacious fines for vandalism caused by transients?
Wait until they gut the streets for the sewer job. And if you have a minute, read the reports – there really are “secret tunnels” under Downtown, only not for opium dens, but for utilities, and for those old delivery elevators that used to open up down into the basements of various businesses. I’ve actually seen those used. These “tunnels” don’t all connect, and some of them are flooded. Last I heard the city isn’t even sure where they all are.
City of Chico officials and employees think of the rest of us as cash cows. They want us to pay for a mess they’ve been massaging for years, demanding more money from the taxpayers, just to feather their own nests, while they kick the poop can down the road.
So I wrote a letter about it!
After I sent my last letter, I received an agenda for the March 5 Finance Committee meeting. I was unable to attend, but heard later they are discussing a much higher sewer rate increase than I had read in a previous report.
City leaders like to talk about making housing more affordable, whether it’s rentals or private homes, but they fail to discuss the reality – just because a person can get a house, doesn’t mean they will be able to afford all of the associated costs. We’ve all watched PG&E and Cal Water rates rise steadily over the past 20 years, and now the city is sticking their thumb in the pie with their sewer rate increases.
Not to mention, a 5% tax on Cal Water and PG&E bills, as well as franchise taxes on PG&E and Comcast. They also have a franchise deal with the garbage companies.
These costs directly affect the cost of housing.
Where will the money go? Think you’ll see any work in your neighborhood? The Pension Stabilization Trust takes a percentage from every city fund to make the CalPERS deficit payment – will the sewer fund be exempt from the “catch-up” payments?
Election time is the best time to ask questions.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
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