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I feel like I’m living in a zombie movie

16 Dec

Yes, I saw that Mark Sorensen is tucking his tail and jumping the ship that he has sailed onto the rocks. He’s been at the head of the ship for years – first, as city council member, then mayor, and finally, a very lucrative jaunt as city manager – very profitable for Mr. Sorensen, not so good for city of Chico. He will retire with 70% of his $211,000+ salary.

Meanwhile, those of us not hooked up to the public teat struggle to keep up with the tax increments, the petty but steady increases in our utility rates, and the ever-increasing “quality of life” crimes and gawdawful traffic. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a zombie movie.

Speaking of taxes, my husband and I had a heck of a time paying our latest installment of property taxes this year. It’s been a long-time tradition for me to mail our property tax payment the Monday after Thanksgiving. Never had a problem. Until this year. We always use the county website to make sure that our payment has been posted by the tax collector. This year, it just didn’t turn up, didn’t turn up. So when December 10th rolled around, my husband was finally able to contact the office – our check had not arrived, and the employee recommended we just pay it online, with a fee, of course. The county employee said that if they received our check they would send it back to us. (yeah, by way of the same post office…)

She also went on at length about what a pile of shit the post office is these days. Like I need a lecture from some sack of a county worker about how crappy the post office is.

This is asinine. You take your tax payment to the post office and hand it over to the staff, and it still can’t make it to Oroville within a week and a half?

Yes, by jiminy, it’s Christmas – and we ordered our gifts online. When my son’s gift arrived here on December 9th, we realized, the size was way off – our mistake. But Amazon has a great return process. We immediately got busy with the return process, and ordered a new item at the correct size. Wow, maybe Amazon should run the post office – we received the replacement on December 12th. The package we returned was received and posted on our account by the 15th. No fees, no fuss.

Our government is insubordinate. When you look that word up you also get “churlish” – yes, public employees are just plain rooooooood!

In these days of lawlessness and disorder, we have to stick together and hold our position. My position is, I will not spend a taxable dime in Chico, or Butte County. We actually went to Orland last week to do some last minute shopping. Orderly little town, great “antique stores”, felt safe leaving our car on the street. Yes, they have a penny sales tax, but that hardly matters when you are buying tiny trifles at the thrift store. I got some incredible vintage Christmas cards and handmade soap, less than $10. Went to the Farwood Grill and where my husband and I split a ginormous BLT – local bacon, on REAL bread. Picked up 20 lbs of mandarins, small bag of meyer lemons and a $4 dozen eggs at a local farm.

Don’t just sit there. Do something.

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Unfunded pension liability up by $60 million – van Overbeek wants to “outsource” Hey, Tom, grow a pair – let’s ask the employees to pay a rational share of their own benefits!

17 Oct

I have been asleep at the wheel. It’s that time of year – leaf management, gutter cleaning, whack and blow, etc etc. And then I got the next council agenda, and I kind of woke up out of a stupor. It was the Finance Committee report from their meeting earlier this month.

https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1180&meta_id=99060

Following a presentation from finance manager Barbara Martin, “Councilmember van Overbeek stated he is concerned that the unfunded liability number keeps growing and inquired if all employees are part of CalPERS.” The finance director answered yes. “Councilmember van Overbeek stated the UAL increase from $117 million to $180 million is a startling increase.“

I have to ask, was Van Overbeek elected yesterday? He’s on the finance committee, he never heard about the pension deficit?

Then Van Overbeek suggested outsourcing – yeah, yeah – we’ve heard that conversation about a thousand times, with no results. Sorensen said that outsourcing would cost more money in the long run. Van Overbeek still wanted to pursue it, asking staff to come up with a “breakdown” of all the departments and where there are “opportunities for outsourcing..” Here’s this guy talking about employee costs who doesn’t seem to understand how expensive staff time is, he just expects to snap his fingers and get this stuff. At this point Sorensen did his job – he told van Overbeek that this information was available in the appendix to the city budget that Van Overbeek is supposed to be familiar with.

Tom, you’re a fucking idiot! Time vampire! You have been on council long enough to participate in a number of contract agreements with various employee groups. You have signed onto contracts offering guaranteed raises and abysmally low shares of benefits costs without wondering where the money would come from to pay for these raises, or what effect the raises and underpayments would do to our CalPERS obligation? Why didn’t you ask these questions during the Measure H campaign?

And here’s the question for council and city manager Mark Sorensen – why, when we’ve had this same conversation all the way back to when Brian Nakamura was city manager and Mark Sorensen was on council, we’ve been fully aware of the pension deficit, and none of you have once suggested that employees pay a more rational share of their overly generous benefits.

Instead you’ve tried to foist an illegal Pension Obligation Bond without putting it to a vote of the taxpayers. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association had to put a cease and desist order on that. What’s your plan now?

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With revenues remaining ‘flat,’ Chico just sent over $14 million to CalPERS in “catch-up” payments – that’s where the Measure H revenues are going, just follow the bouncing dollar sign.

29 Aug

My husband and I recently took a “working” vacation – workation? We needed a new toilet for our rental, and finding the prices at Chico home improvement stores to be prohibitive, we went to Oregon to find a better deal. With school in and Summer slowly giving over to Fall, our usual motel had a cheap room for us. We got more savings at local grocery stores and produce stands. We stocked up on household stuff at Walmart, including all the type of over the counter medicines that are taxable in Chico. Shoes on SALE! at Big 5, we bought two pairs. We saved money that offset the price of the motel even further.

I’ll say, you need to do stuff for your mental health too. Every now and then, we need to get out of town, see how other people are doing things. As a Chico resident, I can tell you first hand – Chico has become an unpleasant place to shop, financially, morally, and aesthetically.

Medford, for example, has a vibrant retail sector. The stores are clean and well-run, and you can find what you need, no empty shelves. Their Winco is bigger and has a wider brand selection of various products. There are two really nice natural foods stores, with super fresh local produce. We couldn’t do the U-Pick farms this year, but we found really good apples and pears at the grocery store, for $2.50/lb.

Free parking everywhere, no kiosks, no hassle getting where you want to go.

Here’s the funny thing – while Chico is reporting flat revenues, even after a full one-cent sales tax increase, Medford reports their revenues have been on the up, up, up since COVID ended. With no state or local sales tax.

Chico made the same mistake that a Redding City Council member has called out – basing budget projections on one-time money, and then crying poormouth when the funds dry up. Specifically, American Rescue Funds. Those funds – millions – were horribly miss-spent by the city of Chico, and furthermore, included in budget projections for the future, even though they were one-time grants.

Having spent those funds like a pack of drunken sailors instead of dedicating them to needed infrastructure projects, they had some nerve to put the bite on voters to approve that one-cent sales tax. Of course they put up a simple majority measure that guaranteed the money would go into the General Fund, with no restrictions on spending.

“The ending of federal funds, like the American Rescue Plan, and a drying up of city grant money ($5.2 million) are creating a gap that could lead to dipping into the general fund for programs, including those for the homeless.”

“programs” – yeah sure! As usual, employee expenses continue to grow. According to city finance manager Barbara Martin, “On the expense side, personnel costs remain the leading driver. Unfunded pension liability continues to loom large, with the city’s payment for the upcoming year exceeding $14 million.”

Yep.

Meanwhile, “City of Medford revenues are not flat; recent trends and future projections indicate growth, though the rate has varied. While growth slowed slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic, city reports and budget adoptions show upward trends, with a significant increase projected for the upcoming 2025–2027 budget cycle…”

Medford voters will be asked to approve a Transient Occupancy Tax increase. My husband tells me Oregon’s overall TOT is higher than California. But who cares – it’s a percentage of the total room price, and the places we stay in Oregon are so much cheaper than their counterparts in California, TOT is more like a charitable donation to keep the town you’re visiting ahead of the extra infrastructural strains of tourism. I’ll say, the big, busy streets and intersections around our hotel and the retail areas we patronize are well planned, well maintained, and pedestrian friendly.

UPDATE: I looked it up – Medford has a 10.5% TOT, 9% of which goes to the city of Medford to help provide the amenities that tourists enjoy while remediating the strains of tourism, like extra traffic. Meanwhile, Chico charges 12% TOT, 10% goes to the GENERAL FUND. As you will recall, the General Fund is a grab bag with no restrictions. Again, the General Fund is looted every year for millions (this year over $14 million) to pay the unfunded liability left by the completely unrealistic shares that city employees pay for their overly generous benefits.

When we shop in Chico, I oftentimes have to sit in our truck while my husband goes into a store to safeguard tools we have to carry in the back of the truck. We’d never think of walking to do any shopping in Chico, even small grocery purchases, and we never ride our bikes in Chico anymore. People who have moved here within the last 20 years just wouldn’t get it – Chico was better than this when my husband and I were raising our family here. Now it’s gone past the pale, and I don’t know if there’s any coming back.

My prediction – they are going to try to float a bond for the sewer.

City of Chico fumbles through Warren settlement – how much is this Whack A Mole game costing us? Meanwhile, Van Overbeek says we’ll be needing more money for the massive sewer job Downtown. Sales tax revenues are flat. Where will the money come from?

19 Aug

I’ve been reading an obscure book I picked up from a cousin. The author describes the pitfalls of Democracy. He opines that a decision made by simple majority – only 50%+1 of the voters – is tyranny.

I’ll agree, but what are you going to do about tyranny when you live in tyranny? Over the last 10 years, our liberal state government has quickly and decisively chipped away at our voters’ rights, allowing simple majority decisions on tax measures. When California voters put a measure on the ballot seeking to restore the 2/3’s requirement for tax measures, our governor and his friends in the legislature went to un-precedented lengths to make sure that the voters could not stop tax increases, declaring our citizen’s initiative to be illegal and taking it off the ballot before we were allowed to vote on it.

So here we are in Tyranny, what to do, what to do. People are leaving – to those people, I say, thanks for nothing, you cowards. If all I can do is mau-mau the flak catchers, well, that’s what I’m going to do. Let’s start with the bi-weekly idiot show known as Chico City Council. The problem with Democracy, is who runs it.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/city-of-chico-seeking-relief-from-some-of-the-rules-in-the-warren-v-chico/article_d87c143f-6805-4c8d-8647-511ee41f723d.html

The public has been kept out of this conversation for years. Just now we’re hearing that our city legal advisors have been incompetent. The incompetent leading the stupid (council). Just now they’re asking themselves questions like, was the settlement about the eight people named in the suit, or is every unhoused individual that shows up in town part of the “protected class” of litigants? They never asked that question in the beginning? Our $200,000+/year attorneys never asked that question?

We’ve been stuck in this mire since 2018, when Andrew Coolidge went with the liberals on council to sign the Shelter Crisis Designation. That agreement came with over $4 million, but it set us on a path that has led to millions more lost down the rabbit hole. Or let’s say, the mole hole. Council, including Coolidge and current mayor Kasey Reynolds, hired the attorneys who have misled them, and then none of them thought the logical thought – “shouldn’t I check with my own attorney to see if any of this shit is legal or makes sense? What is a ‘class’, anyway?” Even if any of them have had doubts about what any of our city attorney’s have told them, they didn’t have the balls to check into it, or even express their doubt.

The last person on council who asked the pointy questions was Kami Denlay.

Nowadays, it’s common for people to ignore court orders, even defy the orders of the President of the United States. Why didn’t our council refuse to go along with Judge England’s insanity? Because they were afraid, afraid in their little panties – Sean Morgan admitted that on his radio show. Afraid what the consequences would be for them personally. They didn’t give a shit what happened to our town.

While they diddled millions away on the lawsuit, and the not-so-clever game of Whack A Mole they’ve engaged in, they’ve left our streets and other infrastructure to go to rot. They’ve approved subdivisions in every directions, failing to address major infrastructural issues around the existing parts of town. Like the 150 year old sewer lines running under Downtown Chico, into the surrounding neighborhoods, and in one case, directly into Little Chico Creek.

Yes, the sewer line from Tin Roof Bakery was found to be dumping human waste into Little Chico Creek. That story came out because the breach was found by a Chico State class on a field trip. The city has known the sewer lines were a disaster for over 50 years, but nobody has had the guts to do anything about it. They went along spending money on jolly projects Downtown: a $4 million-plus plaza remodel that nobody wanted; lateral parking/no let’s make it parallel again/no let’s make it lateral again; Studebaker strips on the sidewalks, then tore them out to bulb the corners; most recently, “parklet” seating for bars and restaurants, along the very streets that will have to be torn completely out over the next 10 years. All paid for by the taxpayers, many of whom are still waiting for sidewalks, drainage and new sewer lines in their neighborhoods.

Why has the sewer job taken so long? Because instead of directly addressing the problem and applying for state and federal funding to help with the cost, city “stakeholders” have been engaging in a circular argument about turning the sewer job into a total remodel of Downtown Chico. Here, just a year ago, Addison Winslow addresses his happy-wanderer fantasy for a Downtown remodel.

People Always Ask Me, "How Is It Being on the Chico City Council?"
byu/addisonforchico inChicoCA

Meanwhile, city revenues are flat, two years into a full cent sales tax increase that was supposed to be the end-all of our problems. We’ve heard about businesses closing Downtown – look around the rest of town. Look at the city reports – sales tax revenues are DOWN, not up. How do sales tax revenues go down after a full cent increase?

City policies are driving shoppers away, that’s how. They keep telling us we don’t pay enough to have the kind of services that used to be what cities exist to do. How has this happened? Ask yourself – how have you voted? Have you voted?

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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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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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Pete Wilson: don’t allow Gavin Newsom to disenfranchise more than one million voters who chose to put the Taxpayer Protection Act on the ballot – get involved!

13 Nov

Realizing we were about to be overcome with the holiday season, extreme weather, and taxes, my husband and I took a quick road trip to Oregon to refresh and take advantage of tax-free shopping. Every time I pay that Measure H penny in Chico I feel like I’m being shaken down, it’s demeaning to be over-taxed and then get nothing for it.

So I buy my sundry taxable items at in various Oregon towns, at the usual chain stores – Target/Walmart/Lowe’s/Tractor Store. Boring stuff maybe – clothes, personal hygiene, household goods, building supplies and a 35 lb bag of dry food and two cases of canned food for our rescue kitties. But there’s plenty of other stuff to buy in a state that still values farms and Ag at many farmer’s markets and “antique malls” – I got homemade goat milk soap, jam, apples, honey, and one last summer tomato about the size of a baby’s head. Ate the last of that yesterday with bacon, lettuce and some bread we picked up at a bakery in Medford.

In one town there was a lady selling WHOLE PIES at a gas station, blackberry, apple, peach – who could walk away from the Pie Lady? We got a blackberry pie, hacked out a whopping chunk with my husband’s pocket knife and ate it with our bare hands on the tailgate of our car. It’s the little things, you know, like licking blackberries off your fingers and picking seeds out of your teeth hours later to remind you how much you enjoyed it.

Friendly people, every where we went they fawned on our dog and offered him treats. Vendors gave us free stuff. And it’s not just the sales tax – stuff is just cheaper, the economy seems to be much stronger, and there are more people shopping and WORKING.

But I love California, so we came home. You won’t get rid of me that easy, get used to it.

I know California is a mess right now and people are angry. Colleen Jarvis (look it up) once told me, “you have to pick your battles Juanita!”. She was right. I got a battle for you – the battle for your right to have more to say about being taxed. Support the Taxpayer Protection Act – you’ll be in good company. Other supporters include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, as well as groups like Reform California. Our former state senator Jim Nielsen just joined the board of HJTA.

Former Governor Pete Wilson has sent an “amicus letter”, correctly pointing out that ” Nothing in the Petitioners’ brief constitutes an emergency, especially one that would require this Court to take the extraordinary step to grant preelection review, ” and that Newsom’s lawsuit would “disenfranchise more than one million voters who chose to put the TPA on the ballot.” Thanks Pete!

I just received a notice about a Southern California group called “The Two Hundred for Home Ownership”, saying they “filed an amicus letter opposed to the governor and Legislature’s lawsuit to disqualify the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act from the November 2024 ballot.” THFHO is “a statewide coalition of founders of civil rights organizations, community and business leaders, housing advocates, former state legislators, and cabinet members dedicated to mitigating the growing wealth gap in California through homeownership” I don’t know much about this group, but I know California has a tremendous wealth gap and that’s not a strong economy.

What is an “amicus letter”? From Wikipedia, “An amicus curiae is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an amicus brief [letter] will be considered is typically under the court’s discretion.” These letters can have a lot of impact on a case. I’ve signed similar letters, like the one that stopped the city of Chico from instituting an illegal Pension Obligation Bond.

Get involved, it does pay off. Go to https://taxpayerprotection.com/ to learn more about the TPA and brazen efforts to stop it from making the ballot – stopping the voters from having any say-so. Don’t just sit there gaping while they take your rights – if my husband and I and other members of the community had just sat on our hands, you’d be paying a monthly City of Chico tax on your cell phone (a percentage of your bill!) and a Chico Area Recreation District parcel tax on your house (a tax that would have gone up annually with the Cost of Living Index).

If you live in Chico, you are a member of the Chico Taxpayers Association. Exercise your rights. Send letters to the local papers, speak to your friends, don’t be shy. This is too important.

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Why would Gavin Newsom sue to stop the Taxpayer Protection Act?

6 Nov

Well, Happy Anniversary Chico Taxpayers Association – today I paid the annual fee for the blog, and as of January, this blog has been running for 11 years. And there’s been a lot of people who have contributed over the years, thankyouverymuch (say it like Elvis).

I started this blog when the city of Chico floated the cell phone tax – Measure J – onto the ballot, like a big turd. With the efforts of the Chico Tea Party (now defunct), Butte County Libertarians, Chico Republican Women, and many individuals, that measure was defeated. All it took was getting out there and informing the public of the details. Ann Schwab, then mayor and lead proponent of the tax, tried to tell people that the measure would actually lower the utility tax. They will say whatever they want, it takes research and a lot of push back to get the truth out there.

We faced the same kind of misinformation campaign from Chico Area Recreation District Measure A, a parcel tax. We attended meetings and heard CARD director Ann Willman, well, dropping some little fibs. Like when she tried to tell a group at an “informative” meeting that CARD had no debt, insinuating all the parcel tax money would go to expanding services instead of shoring up poor fiscal management. Dave called her on that one, and she had to admit her error – at that time, the pension deficit for an agency of about 35 employees had reached over $1.7 million.

It’s always shocking to me how the government will lie to get the voters to pass taxes on themselves, but that’s the way it is, and we have to push back. This is what we’re facing with the Taxpayer Protection Act – opponents, led by Governor Gavin Newson, are trying to stop the TPA from being on the 2024 ballot. Newsom himself has mounted a lawsuit, claiming the TPA “represents an illegal attempt to revise the state constitution” and “Administrative agencies would lose the power to do much of the work they do today under legislatively delegated authority.”

If you believe we should have more to say about taxing ourselves, find out more about supporting the Taxpayer Protection Act at https://taxpayerprotection.com/

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Finance Committee Report: Taxpayer Protection Act will invalidate Measure H in December 2025

27 Sep

Well, there I said it yesterday, and today I heard it – yes, city of Chico management is worried about the Taxpayers’ Protection Act.

At today’s Finance Committee meeting, city manager Mark Sorensen jumped on the Misinformation Bandwagon. “The act would amend the California Constitution to restrict the ability of the state, counties, other local agencies and the electorate to approve or collect taxes, fees, and other revenues.”

Restrict the ability of the electorate? You mean, the voters? How does an amendment that requires 2/3’s of the voters to agree on something before it is shoved up our collective patoot “restrict the ability of the electorate”?

One actual fact coming out of Sorensen’s report is that if the TPA passes, Measure H, the Chico sales tax, would be invalidated, void, deader than a doornail as of December 2025. He listed two reasons why Measure H did not comply with the TPA – the duration of the tax was not listed on the ballot measure, neither was the use of the revenue.

In fact, there are three reasons H would be invalid, but let’s talk about the ones he listed. I’m not sure the first one was important, since it was pretty clear that H would be perpetual. But that should be in the discussion, and in the language of the measure.

The second reason was the subject of a lawsuit in Yuba County. Like Yuba County Measure K, Measure H was a General Use measure, because it only required 50+1, meaning the revenues go into the General Fund with no restrictions on spending. The ballot measure should have said “for general government use“, me and other opponents tried to point that out again and again. The Finance Department Staffer even said that any “surplus” left over in the General Fund at the end of the year is likely to go toward the Unfunded Pension Liability. But, like Yuba County Measure K, Measure H listed specific uses, like public safety and road repairs, as bait. If that’s not illegal now, we really need to pass the Taxpayer Protection Act.

Furthermore, Sorensen mentioned NOTHING about the 2/3’s voter approval requirement. Is he in denial or what? The TPA will invalidate any measure that was passed with less than 2/3’s voter approval. Why did he leave that out of his report?

Sorensen listed several options.

Place a successor to Measure H on the Nov 24 ballot with the Acts additional requirements. That of course would mean, get to work immediately, and would entail a lot of money for a consultant to poll the public and write the ballot, etc. There was no dollar estimate there and nobody at the meeting expressed interest.

Wait to see if the act is passed by voters in 2024. Of course they would be able to collect the tax right along, and I’m not sure if they would have to pay it back.

If the act passes (pick one):

A) Declare an emergency to place Measure H back on the ballot, in compliance with the Act’s new requirements, prior to December 2025. I think that would require a special election because Sorensen makes note, with bright yellow highlighting – “High special elections costs”.

B) Do nothing and let the 1% sales tax expire in December 2025. Well, we have a winner as far as I’m concerned but Finance Committee member and Mayor Andrew Coolidge seemed more interested in the next option.

C) File a lawsuit to challenge the window period provision of the Act. Ha ha – here I’ll note – the city of Chico is up to their ass in lawsuits right now. In fact, the Finance staffer said the city attorney’s litigation fund is over budget by $770,000 (aka, three quarters of a million dollars …). So yeah, another lawsuit, that’s what we need – let’s just sue the voters! Cause that’s what it would mean to sue over a measure passed by the voters, wouldn’t it?

Coolidge wanted to know how many other cities have passed taxes that would be subject to the TPA – “how many other municipalities are in FREE FALL?” he asked. He asked Sorensen “can we get a legal opinion to amend Measure H?” I’m not sure what he means, except, he’s willing to spend more of our money to buck the will of the voters. He also asked for “an estimate of special election costs… “

Sorensen seemed annoyed – he reminded Coolidge, council members had received a confidential legal analysis of the TPA, and both of those questions were covered. You have to wonder if Coolidge even reads the staff reports.

In the end it all came down to “wait and see”. Sorensen discussed ACA 13, but obviously does not understand it. He “thinks” it will take effect immediately, requiring the TPA to get 2/3’s approval. I don’t know the answer to that either, but you know what – I don’t get $211,000/year to manage a town, and I don’t have a $200,000/year lawyer on my staff. So I’ll ask the folks at Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, I’ll send them a copy of Sorensen’s report and see what they think.

Coolidge expressed some childlike doubt that the TPA would pass – assuming it would need 2/3’s approval because he’s so sure ACA 13 will pass. He claims to know several union officials, and they’re making the defeat of the TPA a “Number One Priority“. Well, it’s just good to know who the mayor’s friends are. And that just goes to show you, it’s the tax advocates, not the taxpayer advocates, who are behind ACA 1 and 13.

Sean Morgan opined, “It’s like the CalPERS thing… we see a train coming… but we can’t do anything about it…”

Yeah, that’s the situation – these people have set our town on the train tracks. And it’s not just one train – we’ll cover the CalPERS Express next time, on This Old Lady Says “Get your ass off the tracks!”

Letter to Editor: Does the Cal League of Cities have more influence over our council members than we do? Ask your district rep.

26 Sep

We talked about ACA 13, but another state ballot measure to be concerned about is ACA 1. I mentioned ACA 1 when it was introduced a few years ago. It lowers the voter threshold for special taxes and bonds to fund low-income housing projects. It went out of circulation when it failed to get enough votes in committee, but a Solano County assemblywoman reintroduced it and it made it’s way through the process to the ballot.

Yes, it is ironic that we have one measure aimed at protecting taxpayers and two others that aim to lower the bar for raising taxes while raising the bar for protecting taxpayers. Sacramento is the biggest fight pit in the state, a cock-and-bull circus. We pay for this manure pile – agencies like the Cal League of Cities are funded with our tax dollars, in the form of city membership dues, as well as exorbitant fees for conferences and “workshops”. The city of Chico (taxpayers) paid about $30,000 this year for our city manager to be a member of this non-public organization – does Cal League have more influence over our city council members that we do?

I would very much like to see ACA1 and 13 go down in flames, and while I hope to see the Taxpayers Protection Act pass with flying colors. I get disgusted with the slew of misinformation that agencies like the Cal League are spreading, using OUR MONEY. So I wrote a letter about it.

There are three state measures headed to the 2024 ballot regarding local taxes. ACA 1 and ACA 13, respectively, would lower the voter threshold for tax measures and raise the threshold for taxpayer protection measures. The Taxpayer Protection Act would raise the voter threshold for tax measures back to 2/3’s.

The California League of Cities claims ACA 1 and ACA 13 would actually “empower local voters”. How would measures that raise voter approval for taxpayer protection to 2/3’s, while lowering the bar for tax measures to less than 55%, empower voters?

Opponents, including CLC, claim the Taxpayer Protection Act “would undermine the rights of local voters and their elected officials to make decisions on critical local services that residents rely upon.” I hear, “we’ll tell you when you need to pay more, or we’ll cut services…”

Opponents also claim the TPA would “create major new tax loopholes at the expense of residents and will weaken our local services and communities.” But they don’t list the loopholes, and they again threaten service cuts.

Here’s what they’re really worried about – besides restoring the 2/3’s voter threshold for tax measures, the TPA would void tax increases passed with less than 2/3’s approval since January 2020, including Measure H, the one-cent Chico sales tax increase.

The city of Chico pays $30,000/year for membership in the CLC. Last March Mark Sorensen handed council a resolution to oppose the TPA, but it was not discussed publicly. Ask your council representative what they plan to do.

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

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