California Governor and legislature are trying to take us back 240 years – they want to tax us without our vote. That’s taxation without representation.

17 Dec

When you’re making important decisions regarding ballot measures, I hope you’ll study up on the issues, read information from both sides. You might even try to find some impartial sources. Here’s an pretty fair article from Oregon University’s Jefferson Public Radio about the California Taxpayer Protection Act. Oregon has no dog in this fight, so it’s good to hear what they have to say about it.

https://www.ijpr.org/politics-government/2023-11-20/why-newsom-and-california-lawmakers-want-the-state-supreme-court-to-remove-a-2024-ballot-proposition

League of California Cities, the California Democrats, Governor Newsom and other opponents of the TPA claim the TPA shouldn’t even be allowed on the ballot.

“In late September, Newsom, the Legislature and former California Democratic Party chair John Burton filed an emergency petition asking the California Supreme to invalidate it. Their main argument is that the measure is so sweeping that it is a constitutional revision, rather than a constitutional amendment.“

Meanwhile, Democrats in the legislature are trying to amend the state constitution to require only 50%+1 approval for tax measures (ACA 1) and only 2/3’s passage for taxpayer protection measures (ACA 13). Those are both legislative amendments with NO VOTER APPROVAL.

Excuse me – what a pile of fucking hypocrites and just plain RACKETEERS! Their claim that this measure will make it harder to raise taxes is absolutely true – but not impossible like they’re claiming. It will just require more of us to sign on the handing our money down the toilet, than just our neighbor and another guy. Read further.

The ballot proposition would require voters to sign off on any new state tax or tax increase. It would also raise the threshold for voter approval of citizen-proposed taxes in cities, towns and counties from a simple majority to a two-thirds vote.

The measure would also reclassify many regulatory fees as taxes, which would subject them to the same requirements as taxes in order to be increased. Currently, some state and local governing bodies have delegated authority to agencies – such as municipal departments – to increase certain fees.

Here’s the real threat, especially in Chico, where the city just foisted a sewer “rate change mechanism) through mailed ballot followed by a 50%+1 sales tax increase.

If approved, the proposition would apply retroactively to all state and local tax increases since January 1, 2022 with a remedy period. That could mean a reversal of new local taxes that aren’t able to meet the requirements, which has raised alarm from the League of California Cities and a handful of mayors.

So wake up, look around – our Democratic Governor and his stooges are trying to tax us without proper representation, meaning your vote, your approval. Your answer: NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

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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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City plans to pour more Camp Fire relief money into Downtown – what about the rest of town?

7 Dec

I was raking up a mess of leaves and clutter out in front of my house the other day when I realized our neighborhood has been annexed to the city for over 20 years and we still have none of the services they promised when they nailed us. All we got out of it was Utility Tax. My street has no drainage, no sidewalks, and about once a year a transformer blows up out on the street and shuts power off for a few blocks.

No, it’s not just my neighborhood. Before he left, Mark Orme admitted that Chico internet is hit and miss. It’s true, all over town, people are paying for internet that is not supported by any infrastructure. I just went out the other day to buy a gift for a friend from a shop located in an East Avenue shopping center, and it took almost half an hour to ring up my purchases because the shop had poor internet. The woman fussed and apologized, but she finally decided to write out my bill by hand because she couldn’t get her computer to respond. It’s Christmas folks, how many hours will you spend in line waiting for the internet?

According to former city manager Orme, the city does not have the infrastructure in place. It’s true, as you drive around town, you find whole neighborhoods where people still have to make phone calls from their front yard, and their kids can’t use their computers to do school work.

So the city of Chico has decided to use hundreds of thousands in Camp Fire relief money to do another remodel of Downtown Chico. According to my council rep, “complete replacement of the sewer, power and water lines would be part of this project.” This after former manager Orme had announced the Camp Fire refugees had put undue strain on city services, not just Downtown. So why is the money being spent Downtown, on stuff like parklet for bars?

There’s more outrage to the new Downtown remodel, we’ll talk about that next time. This is just another reason to overturn Measure H, as far as I’m concerned.

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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Why is American Rescue Funding going toward parklets and other sundries when the sewer lines Downtown are badly in need of replacement?

3 Dec

Tomorrow City of Chico Internal Affairs Committee (Reynolds, Winslow and Vanoverbeek) will be discussing use of American Rescue Plan Funding to do more work Downtown. They want wider sidewalks, more street parking (isn’t that a contradiction?), parklets, and other notions, but what I’m not seeing is any plan or funding for the sewer lines.

So I’m trying a new tack – I’m sending them a note, and I’m trying to be nice. Shut up!

Hi, 

I see no mention in this report of a need for overhaul of the sewer pipes, which have been found to be leaking on at least two occasions I’m aware of. In one instance, a leak in a city irrigation line collapsed the sidewalk in front of the former Kona’s sandwich shop, and in another incident, sewage from a misconnected pipe originating at Tin Roof Bakery was found in Little Chico Creek. Kona’s, a very popular eatery and bread supplier for other sandwich shops, left Downtown. 

Kasey, I think it was you who brought it up at a past meeting.

Before you do all this work to the surface, shouldn’t you fix the sewer? Before Sacramento was able to add the stadium to their Downtown, they had to do massive work on their sewer system, it took years, and shut down whole parts of Downtown Sacramento. I know because I was a student at Sac State at the time. That’s why I came back here and finished at Chico, it was too onerous to get from my Downtown Sacto apartment to the Sac campus.  

Before you use American Rescue money on these proposed projects, I would like to see a total overhaul of Downtown sewer. I also have heard from people around town who are still waiting for sewer lines on their streets – one woman complains the streets adjacent to her block have had sewer lines for years and the city has been promising her little neighborhood hook up for as long. 

This plan has a priority problem. Your new Downtown would not look so hot when the pipes back up, as they have. You should ask staff, how many businesses Downtown have complained about the sewer backing up in their business? 

Just a thought, thanks for listening – Juanita Sumner

The meeting is tomorrow at 1 pm, I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

Does the press manipulate free speech?

22 Nov
I saw this sign along an empty lot on Midway in South Chico. I travel this corridor regularly and I think it’s been posted within the last few weeks.

I don’t know who is responsible for the above sign, but I have to wonder if it has to do with Chico Enterprise Record Editor Mike Wolcott’s new letters policy. If so, this would not be the first person(s) to express dissatisfaction with the new policy, at least one person likening it to censorship.

While I was getting sick of the back and forth, ugly name-calling by people who were getting their jibes in on a fairly regular basis, I’m wary too. Wolcott has long practiced what I’d call censorship – questioning letters he didn’t agree, calling only some writers out on grammatical issues and asking them for confirmation of figures and quotes.

My husband wrote a letter about the proposed Simplicity Village – Wolcott objected to the use of the word “shed” and also my husband’s interpretation of “recycling metal”, asking for three rewrites before he was satisfied with the language and agreed to print the letter. Meanwhile, he allowed all-out assaults on Anthony Watts and Rob Berry.

Earlier this year, he questioned a piece of information I included in a letter about the Downtown Ice Rink – I had to inform him, I’d taken it from an article previously run in his newspaper. Joe Azzarito had a similar experience – Wolcott wasn’t going to run Joe’s letter, because he quoted a previous letter writer by name. Joe made no personal attack, he just disagreed with that person’s statement. The other writer, ironically, is one of the worst of the name-calling fly-baiters, but Wolcott took offense to Joe quoting him and politely disagreeing? Joe sent him a copy of the person’s letter, and Wolcott grudgingly ran Joe’s letter.

The media manipulates what we see and hear by simply printing what they want us to see and hear and not printing what they don’t. Of course they manipulate the “news” as well as our right to express our opinions. Wolcott runs his paper according to his agenda. When Evan Tuchinsky takes over the paper – I’m going to guess, within the next year – he’ll run it according to his agenda.

I’d say Dave Little, gawd blass his ornery hide, was the last good, fair, as un-biased-as-a-person-could-be type of editor that paper had. Sometimes we had fierce disagreements, but he ran my letters. People asked him to stop running my letters, but he told them he couldn’t do that as long as I was sticking to the long-agreed upon rules of the letters section.

Which used to go something like this: 250 words. No libel. No cussing. Try to keep a handle on your spelling, grammar and punctuation, but if you want to appear as an idiot in the paper we’re not stopping you.

Oh here’s an anecdote – one time I used the word “crap” in a letter. I thought that was nicer that saying “bullshit“. Dave Little wrote back, he said, “we don’t print crap in our paper…” Before I could get back to him on that little statement he was back to me with “I mean, we don’t print the word “crap” in our paper…”

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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Tom van Overbeek thinks Downtown is more important than the rest of Chico’s “strip malls” – do you agree?

5 Nov

Council member Tom van Overbeek has agendized a discussion for this week’s Internal Affairs meeting –

Agendize a discussion about changing the references to Downtown Chico in Chico’s public
documents and signage to “Historic Downtown Chico”.
Downtown are what define a city. When you think of Chico you think of Downtown, not one of
the strip malls. When you respect and preserve the history of a town, you are preserving and
respecting its personality and character. Downtown Chico has a unique personality due in large
part to its’ rich and interesting history and our numerous historical buildings. Referring to
Downtown as Historic Downtown Chico will bring attention to the uniqueness of the Downtown
district.
Councilmember van Overbeek
District 6

https://chico.ca.us/sites/main/files/file-attachments/11-06-23_internal_affairs_agenda_packet.pdf?1699026767

I believe this will pass without argument and money will be spent to “rebrand” Downtown Chico. It’s really a desperate attempt to save Downtown Chico, which has suffered from one bad council decision after another over the last 10 or so years. And lack of decision – like, when will they make much needed repairs on the sewer lines? Is that part of the “historic” designation? Historic sewer lines that are leaking into ground water and threatening our drinking water supply? Yeah, let’s all get cholera, that’s historic!

I wish local business owners would sue the city, or better yet – sue the city run Chico Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Business Association for collecting fees from local businesses without really doing anything for them. These people are running our city right down the toilet, quite literally.

Hey, Mike Ramsey – Sacramento County DA is suing the City of Sacramento over illegal camps, what are you doing about the camps in Chico?

31 Oct

Every time I go out to do errands around town I see another homeless camp has sprung up. The problem is, the city has to notice every new camp, and then they just go somewhere that hasn’t been noticed.

Meanwhile,  “Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Sacramento because it has “allowed, created and enabled a public safety crisis” by not enforcing its homelessness laws.“

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2023/09/19/county-da-sues-sacramento-claiming-city-failed-to-enforce-its-own-homelessness-laws/

Where the hell is Mike Ramsey in all this? He recently celebrated 45 years as our county District Attorney. Ramsey is the longest serving DA in California, but I don’t think we should be glad about that. Ramsey brags about being an environmental watchdog – why hasn’t he stepped in on the illegal camps?

How did Chico get caught in this legal mousetrap? In 2018 four council members, including current Mayor Andrew Coolidge, signed the “Shelter Crisis Designation,” receiving over $4 million from the state for doing so. Where did that money go? No, really, I’m asking – any idea exactly where that money went? Where are the beds? Where are the services? According to the city website, “4 days ago Torres Shelter, located at 101 Silver Dollar Way: 49 open beds. Pallet Shelter, located at 2280 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Pkwy: 18 pallet shelters available.“

67 empty beds – why are there all these tents around town? Some of them are in the public right-of-way, blocking sidewalks, accumulating the usual trash cloud. Some of them are on private property – there’s a growing encampment on MLK Parkway, on Chico Unified Property. Why isn’t Chico Unified evicting these illegal tenants? The veterinary clinic across the street closed their 24 hour emergency services for the past year, only recently reinstating that service, because they had transients setting up shop in their bathroom in the middle of the night, and refusing to leave their waiting room. Having only a couple of employees on duty was dangerous, so they just ended their overnight service. I think the closest alternative was in Anderson.

We’ve had to use their emergency services when our dog got sick in the middle of the night. We met a man who had driven his dog into town in his RV, knowing he would need a place to sleep while they treated his dog – he told my husband, “people have been rattling my door all night…” I think the vet and all their patients should sue the city and the school district, I would if I needed service in the middle of the night and was turned away because of the transients.

I recently read a letter from Mark Gailey, saying we were all overreacting to the transients, trying to tell us that Downtown Chico is perfectly safe. He’s full of shit. Every time my husband and I go Downtown, we see something weird and unsafe. On a recent unavoidable trip to the city center, my husband and I watched a disheveled wide-eyed lady, sitting on a bench on Main Street, a bedsheet full of something on her lap. As I was asking myself out loud why that woman wasn’t being served by one or another of the agencies that have sprung up to collect the Homeless Industrial Complex money, a man walked by her without so much as noticing her. Suddenly she came to life and popped up from her perch to follow along behind him. He noticed her and glanced behind nervously, walked a little faster. As she passed the motel she picked up a loose brick from a crumbling planter and started to quicken her pace behind the man. He walked faster. As he approached the intersection ahead he suddenly vaulted across the street. The woman stopped as suddenly as she had began, abruptly dropped the brick on the sidewalk, and entered the University Inn lobby. You better have your radar on when you are out and about in Chico, especially after dark.

You have never really been a victim until you’ve had a cop or other person ask you, “what the heck were you doing there (at night, strange part of town, alone, especially a woman) anyway?” That’s how I feel about Downtown Chico – not worth the risk. Not worth the humiliation of somebody asking you what the hell you were thinking, going Downtown. When it happens to Mark Gailey, let’s all make a collective promise not to say that to him.

And as of now, let’s hope somebody will challenge Ramsey for District Attorney soon.

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