Chico pension deficit | Chico Taxpayers Association

Archive | Chico pension deficit RSS feed for this section

Will the taxpayers be left holding the Pension Deficit Bag?

Have you been “left holding the bag“? This expression is generally used to describe a situation wherein a person or persons create a problem and then leave others to deal with it. According to Grammar Girl, there are different shades of meaning – “this idiom grew out of an earlier expression from about 1600: to give one the bag. That expression referred to someone being left with an empty bag after everyone else removed the good stuff.”

We all know what it’s like to be left holding the bag – empty or full – but I wonder, how do you all feel about the bag being handed to your children? This is what City of Chico staff are trying to do – hand their pension deficit bag to our kids.

The other night I took in a Chico Parks and Playgrounds Commission meeting to hear a pitch for a sales-tax-to-secure-bonds scheme that Ass City Mangler Chris Constantin has been pitching for months. Constantin describes a trick by which he can use the additional sales tax revenue to secure bonded debt. What it amounts to is trying to convince us that it won’t be that painful to pay this tax, because it will be stretched out over years. But when I looked into this scheme I found, that means our kids and their kids will be paying this debt, and it’s very unlikely they will see any benefit. The bag we will be leaving for our children will be full of debt, crapped out infrastructure, and public salaries and benefits still spiraling out of control.

From the Tax Policy Center –

“State and local governments issue bonds to pay for large, expensive, and long-lived capital projects, such as roads, bridges, airports, schools, hospitals, water treatment facilities, power plants, courthouses, and other public buildings. Although states and localities can and sometimes do pay for capital investments with current revenues, borrowing allows them to spread the costs across multiple generations. Future project users bear some of the cost through higher taxes or tolls, fares, and other charges that help service the debts.”

At a meeting I attended earlier this year, Mark Orme admitted that the city had “kicked the can down the road” on street maintenance for many years, instead paying millions toward their pensions. This included payments toward the actual deficit, instituting a “Pension Stabilization Trust” that siphons money from every fund, even funds “dedicated” to capital maintenance. Through the PST, staff has tricked us into believing we only pay a certain “employer share” of the pensions, in reality, we pay most of their pension cost. This has created what I’m going to call “the Pension Deficit Bag“.

If we don’t get a handle on the public employee compensation now, we are handing our kids a disaster. This is the dilemma – the public employees want crazy salaries of as much as 4 and 5 times the median income, AND they want 70 – 90% of those outrageously inflated salaries in retirement, BUT they don’t want to pay for it. Years ago CalPERS promised they would make up the difference with investments in the stock market – but their investment strategies, including a bribery scandal, have only deepened the divide. Now they want the taxpayers to take the bag. In fact, Constantin is trying to convince us that it’s okay to let our kids pay for his ridiculous lifestyle demands.

With groups like Pension Tracker shining a light on this grab, CalPERS and the unions have agreed that “new hires” (our kids) be asked to pay 50%. But top heavy management employees, “classic employees“, are only paying 11%. That is not sustainable. Sounds like a classic Ponzi scheme to me!

“Future project users bear some of the cost through higher taxes or tolls, fares, and other charges that help service the debts.” But will they receive any benefits? That’s uncertain, in fact, I’d say it’s not going to happen. According to Constantin, we need hundreds of millions to bring existing streets up to safe standards, but the sales tax increase will only bring in a couple million a year. He explains enthusiastically that’s why we will use those proceeds to borrow money (bonds). That sounds nuts to me.

At that Finance Committee meeting earlier this year, Constantin also warned us that the economy is about to tank. If you’ve been paying attention over the last 35 years, as I have, you’ve seen that pattern of boom and bust. Chico just enjoyed a giant BOOM, despite the poormouth complaining about the Camp Fire refugees. Contrary to the city’s claims, those refugees not only caused a short term blip in the price of housing, meaning MORE PROPERTY TAXES, but those who have remained are still providing a boost to our local sales tax revenues. This will dry up as the retail sector in Paradise recovers, and people start moving back to the Camp Fire burn area. The resulting correction will be tough times for Chico.

Constantin admitted there is such a downturn on the horizon, telling the Finance Committee that his scheme will “shore us up“. What? Who would borrow money in the face of economic downturn? The bonds he’s proposing have to be paid no matter what happens in the economy – just like Constantin’s “defined benefits“.

Throwing a sales tax increase onto people who are already experiencing uncertainty is another nail in our coffin. Studies suggest that when people find out there’s a sales tax increase on the agenda, they start hoarding, buying the bigger ticket items ahead of the sales tax increase. This of course creates a bubble. The same studies show that people develop different shopping habits, such as buying online.

Here’s my anecdote – when Tom Lando first suggested a sales tax increase in 2012, I started shopping out of town and online. Of course these purchases are still taxed, but here’s the message – local businesses lost my money, and they won’t get it back. Local businesses need to realize what they stand to lose. It’s not the box stores that are stealing your business, it’s the sales tax rhetoric coming out of the city of Chico.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories CARD parcel tax March 2020, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, The Pension Deficit Bag

Excessive taxation ruins the economy – time to act to reverse this trend

26 Jul

I saw Patrick Newman’s letter calling (jokingly I assume) for a limit on letters about President Trump. I had to laugh – there have been letter writers, and probably requests made to the editor, to limit Newman’s letters. People have contacted the editors of both the ER and the N&R asking them to stop printing my letters. Some people only want to hear stuff they agree with, that’s nothing new.

I have to agree with Newman’s assertion that people need to pay more attention to what’s going on locally. Not that federal matters are not important, but I feel a person can have more effect locally. And, as citizens become more powerful in local affairs, those localities become more powerful and have a bigger effect statewide, and eventually nationwide.

I think excessive taxation is becoming a huge problem in Butte County, and the state of California, I wish more people would wake up and act. In the city of Sacramento, taxpayer groups who supported their sales tax Measure H quickly realized the funds weren’t being used as promised – too late, they’ve already approved the tax, and Mayor Darrell Steinberg has proposed even more taxes as a result.

I think the root of excessive taxation is incompetent, insubordinate public employees who have fostered a negative and hostile environment for the rest of us. Their salaries and perks not only raise our taxes, but the salary imbalance makes a normal middle class lifestyle unaffordable for the rest of us. These public salaries raise the price of everything from housing to groceries to healthcare. How can the family living on $43,000/year compete with public employees making in excess of $100,000/year? Especially when we are on the hook for their outrageous healthcare and pension packages.

Here’s an irony – most of us get by with catastrophic care, with huge co-pays, packages that won’t get us into a lot of hospitals. Hospitals and doctors can actually refuse our insurance. Meanwhile we fund “defined benefit” health packages for public employees that guarantee them the best of care at top hospitals.

What’s your retirement plan? Die? Well, as long as you live, you’ll be paying pensions of 70 -90% of $100,000+ public salaries. Our city manager, in his 50’s, is already making over $220,000 a year – do the math – if he retired tomorrow we’d be paying him $154,000/year, plus cost-of-living-adjustments, for the rest of his life. Unfortunately I’m afraid he has quite a few more years of self-service left in him, especially since he has what amounts to automatic annual pay raises based on a percentage of his salary.

Currently more than 100 city employees receive salaries of $100 – 225,000/year. Another 25 make $90 – 99,000/year. These folks pay less than 10% of their pension cost, they want us to pay the rest in the form of a 1 cent sales tax increase. They say the money will be dedicated toward streets and safety, but even if they are sincere here, that just loosens up other money to be transferred into the Pension Stabilization Trust. And who can believe what they say when they promised to fix the streets with the trash tax but have instead transferred it into the General Fund?

So we have a sales tax increase measure from the city of Chico and a parcel tax coming from the Chico Area Recreation District. Two regressive taxes aimed at the same population, neither agency having any concern for the economy.

Newman is right – get involved locally. There are a lot of meetings, scheduled at different times, at which you can not only learn more about how these agencies operate, but you can get into the conversation. Check out the schedules and agendas at these links:

http://www.chico.ca.us/government/minutes_agendas.asp

https://www.chicorec.com/board-meetings

Comments 7 Comments
Categories California gas tax increase, CalPERS, CARD aquatic center, CARD parcel tax March 2020, CARD revenue measure, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, trash tax Chico

Those letters don’t write themselves

5 Jul

Reno celebrates the 4th

I’m on the road for the holiday. Spent the 4th in Reno where the casinos do rooftop displays and the university does a big show at their stadium.

Nevada’s nice, gas is cheaper ($3.19/gal), but there’s no place like home. California is where I was born and I don’t believe in running from a fight.

Do you realize, former Chico city manager Tom Lando has been trying to get a tax measure on the ballot since 2012? Why? Because he gets over $135,000/year in pension, and if CalPERS fails he loses it. He knows CalPERS is in deep financial trouble, so he has been trying to get a tax transfusion. He has not only lobbied the city to put a full cent tax measure on the ballot, but as a board member of Chico Area Recreation District (CARD) he’s trying to talk the other board members into a parcel tax measure.

Both measures would be general measures that only require 51% voter approval, meaning they would go into the general fund to be used for salaries, benefits, and the “pension stabilization trust. “

I know, you hear the city saying they will fix the streets and hire more cops, but that’s a lie. Not only did the city establish a “pension stabilization trust” and commit over a million dollars a year to it, but top management now recieve a special 401K in addition to having 90% of their pension paid by the taxpayers. Read their contracts, available at the city website (Human Resources page).

CARD tried to use a new “aquatic center” as bait originally, but after their recent consultant survey, they promise cleaner parks and more security. See how they change their tune, say whatever the voters want to hear? Well look at their budget, available on their website, and see how much money they siphon into their pensions while they tell us they didn’t have enough money to maintain Shapiro Pool. They ignored a local contractor’s report and instead of doing much needed maintenance to save the pool they dumped $400,000 into their pension deficit fund. According to the contractor’s report, they could have saved Shapiro Pool for about $500,000. And he made it clear the problems were due to years of neglecting simple maintenance.

Good lesson in civics for your kids, eh?

So now’s the time to write letters to council and the CARD board, tell them they will have to get that money out of $taffers like city manager Mark Orme, who makes almost $300,000 a year in total compensation but pays less than $20,000 toward 70% of his $225,000 salary at age 55.

Speak now, or forever hold your hands over the seat of your pants.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Chico Area Recreation District assessment, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, revenue measures Chico CA, Uncategorized

So you thought we dumped the king in ’76?

1 Jul

Already July! Fourth of July travelers are on the highway – I wonder if they noticed, the gas tax went up today.

Something nobody seemed to get about SB 1 – the gas tax increase instituted by the state legislature in January 2018 – is that it allows the legislature to raise it at will, no input from the voters.

Honey, that’s called TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

It could get worse – in May, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 was ordered for a third reading, not yet scheduled. ACA1 lowers the voter threshold for [the following italicized portions have been added to the original text] “Bonded indebtedness incurred by a city, county, or city and county city and county, or special district for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of public infrastructure or infrastructure, affordable housing, or permanent supportive housing for persons at risk of chronic homelessness, including persons with mental illness, or the acquisition or lease of real property for public infrastructure or infrastructure, affordable housing, or permanent supportive housing for persons at risk of chronic homelessness, including persons with mental illness, ” from 2/3’s to 55 percent voter approval.

Why? Because it was hard to get 2/3’s approval from the taxpayers. So they are changing the rule. What kind of crap is that? Should the legislature be able to just change the constitution without a vote of the people?

Furthermore, do you really think it’s okay for 55 people to tell the other 45 that they must pay a tax for programs they don’t want to support? I think that’s mob rule, and it’s divisive. A community should agree on stuff, not be subject to the loudest bullies in the group.

Here’s the text of ACA 1

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200ACA1

The bar at the top of the page includes the history of the bill, current status (waiting for a third reading), and who voted how. So far it’s been through the Assembly Local Government Committee, and the Assembly Appropriations Committee. I don’t know where it goes next, but I’m watching this page.

So, this week, when you are trying to enjoy various events, try to remember why we celebrate this holiday. Do some homework, learn something about the process by which they steal your money and ruin your community.

I’ll tell you what my family did to start the week off right – we watched “Vice”, the 2018 movie about Dick Cheney. Sure, it’s silly and fantastic in places, but it tells, factually, how our government works, and why we have to be on top of our politicians.

And then we watched the Nixon movie, “Dick,” which is the best telling of the Watergate story I have ever seen. I was 12 years old when the Watergate story broke in the newspapers, I remember that was the first time my parents didn’t know all the answers. People were stunned, because they knew nothing about how much power the president really had. They thought we dumped the king back in ’76, but they were wrong.

Happy Independence Day Everybody!

Tags: Fourth of July, taxation without representation

ER editor stumps for a tax increase, time to write those letters!

17 Jun

The ER recently published a very insulting editorial.

Editorial: Discussion of a tax could loom for Chico

First of all, Editor acts as though he’s bringing up the subject of a tax – where has he been? The city has been kicking this idea around for years now, and has spent 10’s of thousands of taxpayers dollars on consultants.

That’s the real story – spending taxpayer money on tax measures is illegal. Wake up Mr. “News”(?) editor.

Not one word about the pensions. Not one word about the garbage tax money that was just “stolen” (Karl Ory’s word) to pay salaries, benefits and pensions for non-street maintenance personnel. Just a not-very-clever ploy for bringing the “t-word” out of the closet. As if it’s some novel new idea, being suggested by a gosh-darn good old citizen!

Well, here’s what needs to be brought out of the closet – the Stanford Institute pension tracker.

https://www.pensiontracker.org/agencySummary.php?agency_name=City+of+Chico&id=1390&search=Search

This link covers the city of Chico, but you can find other local entities, like Chico Area Recreation District (CARD). This site blew my mind – what we have here, essentially, is two sets of books, one that reflects reality, and one that reflects what Staff has been telling us. Staff has been reporting the “actuarial” figure as our total deficit – $127,864,195 as of 2017. The actuarial figure assumes a high return on the stock market, and that hasn’t been happening. Our market deficit – what we owe – is over $400,000,000. That’s what we owe employees, minus our “assets”. Study the chart yourself – it’s outrageous.

I really appreciated Steve Wolfe’s kind words, so I wrote another letter to the paper. I included a link to this blog, so people can see the pension tracker for themselves. I hope to hear more people expressing some outrage over this issue, I think we can beat this thing before it gets out of the barn.

I keep hearing a popular chant from high school football running through my head – Push ’em back, push ’em back, waaaaaay back!

When we discuss the “t-word”, there are two other words that need to be included – “pension deficit” – the difference between what public employees want to get in retirement, and what they expect to pay. Chico employees expect to get 70 – 90 percent of salaries over $100,000 a year while paying less than $10,000/year into the system themselves.

CalPERS promised to fund the deficit with stock market investments but has failed miserably, and now expects the taxpayers to pay billions. While Chico staffers cry poormouth and promise to use a new tax for infrastructure, they siphon millions a year out of “dedicated” funds – like the street maintenance and sewer funds – toward their pension deficit. City leaders told us they’d fix our streets with the garbage tax but recently directed this year’s takings to the general fund to pay unrelated salaries, benefits, and pensions.

According to the Stanford Institute, the city of Chico carries over $418,000,000 total pension debt. That’s $11,329 per household, the majority of whom survive on less than $43,000/year. Staff says they don’t have enough money to maintain our streets and other infrastructure, while they funnel millions into the “Pension Stabilization Trust” every year.

Editor warns, “If that one tax measure disappoints, the electorate will likely slam the door on future ones for a long time.” Why be stupid enough to approve a tax measure when we’ve already been disappointed? Would private sector employees get away with this? No. Time for staff to pay their own pensions.

Find sources at chicotaxpayers.com

Tags: Chico Enterprise Record

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Chico garbage franchise, Chico pension deficit, Chico sales tax increase, Our News Media Sucks, trash tax Chico, Uncategorized

Local media continues to spread the Big Lies – arm yourselves with the facts and fight back!

3 Jun

I was using the May 9 issue of the News and Review to wipe out the inside of a peanut butter jar (another time, another blog…) when I noticed an editorial I hadn’t read. It was offensive to see that these “journalists” are still pumping the city’s bullshit about being overwhelmed by the Camp Fire evacuees. That is one of the Big Lies they are using to get a sales tax increase, and I’m sick of hearing it from both the print and tv media. We have no journalism in Chico.

So I wrote a letter about it!

(“Chico needs a lifeline” 5/9/19) Chico has not grown by 20 percent in the wake of the camp fire. Like I said in my last letter, the figures the city is using to support the assumption that Camp Fire evacuees are placing a strain on city services are all estimates.. Go out at rush hour – the traffic impacts we suffered in the weeks immediately following the fire were temporary. Today there are over 200 houses for sale within the city. Housing prices spiked remarkably immediately following the fire because desperate buyers were very competitive, but prices are now back to 2017 levels.

The city’s financial problem is the pension liability. Ask public employees to pay more of their own pensions. For example, the city manager gets over $225,000 in salary, over $80,000 in benefits, and 70% of his highest year’s salary in pension at age 55. He pays 11% of his salary toward that pension. The taxpayers are asked to pick up the rest of his tab, including an IRC 457. If he is sincere about “living within our means” he needs to pay more of his own pension – new hires pay 50 %, why are “classic” employees still paying so little?

Join the conversation at chicotaxpayers.com

Juanita Sumner, Chico

I wish some of you would write – I know there are those of you out there who think they can’t write letters. All you have to do is arm yourselves with the facts, the letter will write itself.

Read Mark Orme’s contract here:

Click to access OrmeEmploymentAgreement10-2017.pdf

See his salary and benefits break down here:

https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=79&year=2017

Have some fun – search the words “pension,” “liability,” and “deficit” in the budget and see how much money they pour into the pensions every year:

Click to access 2018-19CityAnnualFINALBudget.pdf

Speak up! Maybe we can stop this tax measure before they spend any more TAXPAYER money on it.

Tags: Mark Orme Chico City Manager

Comments 2 Comments
Categories CalPERS, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, Uncategorized

Assistant City Manager Chris Constantin lays out his scheme to “shoot (taxpayer) money into the economy at the time the economy is tanking…”

14 May

Just last month Chico City council listened to a consultant’s pitch about placing a revenue measure on the 2020 ballot. They voted to hire the woman, from the same firm that has passed two school bonds, EMC, of Oakland. They also approved a $60,000 budget to run a voter survey and then make a strategy for Staff to use the information gathered to twist sentiment in favor of higher taxes.

I attended an earlier presentation before the Finance Committee and taped it. I was shocked at the statements made – they talk pretty frank at these morning meetings because they know nobody will show up. I was particularly interested in the presentation made by Chico assistant city manager Chris Constantin. Constantin has hatched the same plot described by Sacramento City mayor Darrell Steinberg – a shells and peas scheme called “securitization.” People need to know about this scam scheme, so I wrote a letter to the Enterprise Record.

In 2018 57% of Sacramento voters passed Measure U, a half-cent sales tax increase. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg had promised voters new revenues would not go to employee pensions, instead toward economic development. However, immediately after the election, Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to place the revenues into the general fund, which pays for salaries and pensions.

Lesson learned – with a simple majority measure, the voters lose control over how the money is spent.

Promising again to keep the money from going to the pension deficit, Steinberg proposes to “securitize” $25,000,000 of annual Measure U revenue to create a capital equity fund. That fund would finance the sale of bonds, to be repaid by Measure U receipts over a 25-year period. So, half the sales tax revenue would go toward creating more debt. And the bond money could be spent at council’s indiscretion.

City of Chico staffers have proposed the same “securitization” plan to our council, who plan to put a revenue measure on the 2020 ballot. Assistant City Manager Chris Constantin has proposed using a sales tax measure to fund bonds. Constantin told the Finance Committee the fund could be used to “shoot money into the economy at the time the economy is tanking…” He would not further explain this scheme to a skeptical committee, but assured Sean Morgan “we’ll contract the type of folks who can do it.”

Subsequently, Council approved up to $60,000 from the general fund to pay a consultant to talk us into this scam. Don’t fall for it.

Tags: Chris Constantin Chico Ca, securitization

Comments 12 Comments
Categories Chico bankruptcy, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, Uncategorized

Let’s have some fun learning about tax measures!

3 May

Let’s have some fun people – I’ve learned so much crazy stuff about “revenue measures” the last few years, I want to share! In future posts I want to share what I’ve read about the different kinds of tax measures and how they’re passed, but today I’d like to jump ahead with these two stories from the Sacramento Bee.

I’d call this lesson, “Stuff you should learn from your neighbors”.

Learn it, know it, live it. There will be a quiz.

Sacramento mayor promised tax money for your neighborhood. Will millions go to pensions instead?

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article229871849.html

Sacramento’s business community issues strong rebuke for Measure U tax money projection

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article229876304.html

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories CARD revenue measure, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase

Too many managers leads to gross mismanagement of Bidwell Park – but watch Staff use it as an excuse for a revenue measure

1 May

A few weeks ago we were all so outraged over the cutting of 31 healthy oak trees near Chico Creek Nature Center. The chicken feathers hit the fan. I was glad to see some outrage over a long-time pattern of neglect and mismanagement of Bidwell Park. But, here again, city staff is using this as another pitch for a revenue measure.

This week city public works director Eric Gustafson admitted he didn’t make a work plan for that job – how would the crews know what to cut? Furthermore, he didn’t properly mark the trees. In fact, the city had no standardized system for marking trees, even though an arborist has been on staff for a couple of years now. And the staffer who was supposed to be supervising the crews “had been called away…” Called away to what? Lunch? The bathroom? What other “emergency” would prompt a supervisor to leave a crew with no work plan and no standardized tree markings? Cutting trees over a foot in diameter? This is incompetence.

This incident is just another example of how badly the city manages Bidwell Park. And Chico Area Recreation District took over the Nature Center several years ago – all these managers, but no management?

Gustafson has the nerve, again, to cry about his “staff shortage“. Didn’t he read this post I made at the time?

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2019/03/31/keep-rattling-your-chains-write-letters-to-both-papers-tell-them-we-know-where-the-money-is-going/

Gustafson continues to repeat The Big Lie – staff shortage. But he admitted to the Park Commission ” there were ‘a lot of assumptions made,’ and gaps in communications became obvious.” Assumptions? Gaps in communication? That’s not caused by a staff shortage, it’s caused by a lack of attention to your job. In fact, early reports of the incident said that Gustafson was notified of the cutting at about 11am but did not come out to the job site – less than 5 miles from his office – until about 2 in the afternoon. I think that’s dereliction of duty.

The Big Truth – they’ve deferred maintenance and cut the working staff in the park because they’ve been siphoning money out of the park fund to pay their pensions. Looking at the 2018-19 budget, under “expenditures” on line 996, I found $287,396 in “indirect cost allocation”. As explained by city assistant manager Chris Constantin, that’s money taken from the park fund to pay salaries and benefits of non-park department employees.

Constantin explained it one day in a meeting – as we sat discussing a certain issue, all the employees in the room, from the council members on the board to the city manager to the finance director to the clerk, and including any staffers who came in to give a report, or just because they might be asked a question, were being paid out of the pertinent fund. So when the Finance Committee takes up the subject of putting a revenue measure on the ballots for “road maintenance,” the road fund is billed for the time of every employee in that room, their salaries, benefits and pensions are taken out of that fund. That includes a percentage for the “Pension Stabilization Trust,” out of which is paid the “Unfunded Accrued Liability” (Pension Deficit).

So don’t buy this story about “staff shortage” – tell the truth. It’s time to trim management, in fact, get rid of “classic” employees who are only required to pay 11 percent of their benefits. New hires are required to pay 50 percent. Get rid of the bloated bureaucrats who refuse to do any work, and hire some young people with better attitudes who are willing to pay their own freight.

Tags: Bidwell Park, Chico Creek Nature Center, Eric Gustafson Chico Dept. of Public Works, Oaks Massacre Bidwell Park Chico CA

Comments 2 Comments
Categories CARD revenue measure, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, Uncategorized

A lie will stick unless you call the liar out on it

17 Apr

Al Franken wrote a really funny book years back, before he became a politician, you might want to check it out –

It’s not balanced, or fair, but it’s sooooo true! And it’s not just “the Right,” either. They all lie. Have you heard about the latest attempt to keep voters from knowing the truth about tax measures?

https://calmatters.org/articles/commentary/bond-issue-transparency-still-under-assault/

Dan Walters:

“Two years ago, in a rare display of support for transparency in government finance, the Legislature and then-Gov. Jerry Brown required local governments and school districts to tell voters how proposed bond issues would affect their property taxes.

That would seem to be just common sense and good government, but local officials complained that Assembly Bill 195 would be too difficult to implement. Their real motive, however, was a fear that telling voters that their tax bills would increase might discourage them from voting for the bonds.“

It’s a good thing we have Dan Walters, because our local media have fallen in with city staff and council to run their tax measure campaign, both the tv news and the daily running at least a story a week about how we need a tax measure to fix all the problems brought about by years of poor management and self-service. I finally had to ask ER reporter Laura Urseny where she got the numbers regarding how many Camp Fire evacuees are still residing within the Chico City limits.

I covered that here:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2019/04/12/orme-estimates-10-15000-refugees-living-in-chico-based-on-nonregistration-couch-living-trailers-parked-on-streets/

I knew they didn’t have any numbers, or I’d have asked, “how many people from the burned areas already drove into Chico five or more days a week to their job, already shopped in Chico regularly, already used Chico roads and services?” I already know the answer – probably more than half the people – more like two thirds – in the affected areas already came to Chico, drove our roads, used our retail sector, our post office, and other services, on a regular basis.

But a lie will stick unless you call the liar out on it. So I wrote the following letter to the ER.

Stories in this newspaper claim the city of Chico “has absorbed many displaced Camp Fire victims.” When I asked one reporter for a specific figure, she paraphrased the city manager as follows.

“He [Mark Orme] said he doesn’t have hard numbers from FEMA because of nonregistration, couch-living, trailers parked on streets etc. He said the city is still using the 10,000-15,000 estimate.”

A FEMA map shows a great many of the roughly 20,000 evacuees have spread out around Butte County, California and the US, with no figures for Chico. Staff is simply using numbers that suit their purpose. To date, Staff has used their “estimate” to excuse poor road conditions, crime problems, housing shortage and cost, and now a “$5-6,000,000” roundabout.

Staff admits they have deferred road maintenance in Chico since long before the Camp Fire. The city’s welcome mat for transients is the source of our crime problems. The short-lived boom in the Chico housing market immediately following the Camp Fire has been over for some time – there are 247 listings on Trulia. The proposal to place FEMA housing near the Eaton Road interchange has been abandoned.

Staff is pressing for a tax measure using Camp Fire evacuees as bait. Dan Walters points out “the underlying real reasons, such as to cover rapidly increasing employee pension and health care costs.” Chico’s pension deficit is over $130,000,000. The Wall Street Journal reports, “despite bull market, pension plans in miserable shape…”

Staff needs to fess up, and pay their own pensions.

Comments 14 Comments
Categories Chico bankruptcy, Chico media is a disappointment, Chico pension deficit, Chico revenue measure, Chico sales tax increase, revenue measures Chico CA, Uncategorized

← Older Entries

Newer Entries →

Search

Chico Taxpayers Association