City Council discussing use of American Rescue Funding, Camp Fire Settlement, and Measure H revenues for a “$60-80 million” remodel of Downtown Chico

4 Mar

Tomorrow the Internal Affairs Committee will discuss a “$60-80 million” remodel of Downtown Chico. They plan to use American Rescue Plan money received after COVID, as well as Measure H revenues. The newspaper also reported the city will use part or all of the $24 million Camp Fire Settlement money. After they dig up the entire sewer system for replacement, they intend to completely redesign streets, eliminating still more parking for restaurant seating and new bike lanes. One plan shows elimination of car lanes.

Since I bought my house, Downtown has been “remodeled” several times, at a cost of millions each time. Seeking to increase parking, one plan turned parallel parking to lateral. After concerns were raised about accidents caused by cars backing out, a subsequent plan changed some streets back to parallel. Seeking to lower the speed at which cars traveled through Downtown, sidewalks were bulbed, putting the pedestrian out in the street as a “traffic calming measure.” At that time, they added a “Studebaker strip, the wheelchair, and high-heel accessible strip of flat walkway which lines the center of downtown crosswalks.” I don’t know if that even exists anymore, the streets are in pretty bad shape. Fancy, expensive concrete garbage bins were set at corners in the Downtown grid – they were so badly vandalized by the night people, they had to be removed. All their “experiments” were paid for by the taxpayers, at the expense of local infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the street in front of my house, annexed over 20 years ago, still needs extensive drainage, sidewalks, and resurfacing. There’s a puddle at the end of my driveway right now, created by years of garbage trucks grinding to a stop out front, that smells like an old fish pond. My tax bill is over $7,000 a year. We’ve had new subdivisions built into people’s back yards up and down my street, but promises of “street work” have never materialized. Many properties on my street, a block from Bidwell Park, are still on septic – the city wants 10’s of thousands to hook up to sewer, in addition to the work done on the owner’s property.

How’s the internet at your house, cause people in my neighborhood are still standing in their driveways to use their cell phones while their kids go to the library to do their homework. My internet providers have told me, there are too many trees in my neighborhood, that my house is too far from the street, and finally, they told us, we’re too far from the tower that is located over in college town? What? Hellooooo? Mark Orme, before he hit the road for sweeter pastures, told us we have no internet in whole sections of Chico. That conversation ended when he sidled out of town.

But Downtown gets a total remodel about every ten years. Hmmmm. I think it’s time to take out the trash.

Letter to the Editor: Measure H goes to the General Fund. 50% of General Fund surplus goes to the pension deficit, 25% to infrastructure – what do you think is the city’s real priority?

20 Feb

Sunday my husband and I got out early to do our grocery shopping, to avoid the ever worsening traffic jam on the south side of town. We hit the bargain stores to do the bulk of our shopping, all on the south end of town. Of course, Raley’s is expensive, but they had chicken parts for 97 cents a pound, so we stopped by to see what we could get. Who should we encounter in the parking lot but Mark Sorensen, Chico city manager. Yeah, at his $211,000/year plus benefits, he can afford to shop exclusively at Raley’s! Mark’s a shy guy, when our eyes met, he looked like he’d just seen somebody he owes money. My husband laughed out loud as Sorensen and his wife hightailed it into the store. He looked very uncomfortable, and I think he should be uncomfortable – he’s the biggest head on the stinking fish that is tanking our town right now. Cause when the fish stinks, it’s the head of the fish that stinks.

Sorensen is busy right now trying to save Measure H, City of Chico’s one-cent sales tax measure. Measure H is a train wreck. They spent hundreds of thousands over the past 10 years, hiring consultants to “survey” the public into taxing themselves. The consultants told council and staff that Chico’s main problems were the growing pension deficit, a “management top-heavy” staff, and public mistrust of council because of years of poor spending decisions. They told council that again and again, but council did nothing to alleviate those burdens, they just kept making it worse. They’ve created new positions at over $100,000/year, they’ve handed out raises without significantly increasing employee shares. As you see in the letter below, the pension catch-up payments get more than our tanking infrastructure.

When Sorensen was on council, he said he would not put a general measure on the ballot, he and Morgan both said they wanted a 2/3’s measure to show the public was behind the tax. I don’t know if they were lying, or just changed their minds under pressure. Actually, now that they’re both public employees, I believe they are trying to save CalPERS, cause they know who butters their bread (I know that’s not the original saying but that’s what my German mother-in-law said and it makes more sense).

Something the consultants told them repeatedly was that they could not pass a 2/3’s measure because surveys showed the public had not trusted council for many years, that they’d never get 2/3’s voter approval. But here’s what former city manager and his assistant told council repeatedly – a 2/3’s measure has restrictions on spending. You have to tell the voters what you are going to do, exactly, with a 2/3’s measure, and then you have to follow that plan to the letter. What they want the money for, is to pay down the pension deficit, and they knew they’d never get the voters to approve that. So they ran a general measure and they LIED. They still only got 52%.

The problem with a general measure, is you’re not allowed to promise specific uses. The TPA makes calls for even more restrictions on uses. But here’s where Chico council and staff got their dick in the mousetrap – the consultants also told them that the voters wanted specific stuff. So they promised all those street repairs in the text of their general measure, and that’s not okay. They never had any intention of putting that money toward street maintenance.

This year they’ve budgeted $18 million toward the pension catch-up payments, up from $11 million. They project the payments will be around $25 million by 2025. It’s a black hole, and they won’t make the employees pay more or accept lower salaries. They’re trying to trick the taxpayers into paying it – they tried to get a Pension Obligation Bond without even telling us about it, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers had to put a cease and desist order on them.

On a related note, I and other taxpayer groups joined HJTA in an “amicus” letter to the state supreme court, asking them not to throw out the Taxpayer Protection Act. I’ll keep you posted. Letters were also submitted by our Assemblyman James Gallagher and the California Business Roundtable, to mention a couple. Here’s a letter I’m sending to the Enterprise Record.

In November, the Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA) will be on the state ballot – or will it? The governor and legislature are so worried about this measure they’re suing to remove it from the ballot before the voters have a chance to consider it.

The TPA requires voter approval of any new tax. It requires clear language regarding use of revenues. Chico staff informed council Measure H would be nullified if the TPA passed, because of ” a particular phrase”, meaning, use. Declaring the TPA “catastrophic”, staff convinced council to approve $100,000 to write a modified measure for the November ballot, in case TPA passes. The new measure will include the phrase “for general government use”.

Measure H was misleading, a 50%+1, or “general” measure that made specific promises which would require a 2/3’s vote under TPA – “repairing streets, storm drains, sidewalks, and fixing potholes; addressing homelessness; protecting 911 emergency response times; preserving the number of on‐duty police officers and fire fighters; maintaining/improving Bidwell Park, neighborhood parks…” General measures have no spending requirements.

If the new measure is passed, the revenues will continue to go into the General Fund. According to city budget policies, “financial surplus (determined by staff) in the General Fund shall be allocated as follows: 50% will be allocated to the Section 115 Pension Stabilization Trust; 25% will be allocated to the Public Infrastructure Replacement Fund…” the remainder going toward technology and equipment updates. This year council has budgeted $18,000,000 to CalPERS toward the pension deficit.

Solid NO on P and O!

15 Feb

I received my primary ballot Monday, and I put it in the mail Tuesday. Among other important items, I put a solid NO on P and O.

O was easy – it’s an amendment to the General Plan. Here we’ve had letter writers in support of Valley’s Edge, mostly a realtor who plans to make a lot of money selling those houses, telling us that VE fits the General Plan. Why then would they need to amend the General Plan? Wake up and smell the bullshit People.

I don’t know if I need to, but let me lay out other simple reasons not to build in that swamp. There, “swamp” – that is what we call a “sufficient” reason, one good reason not to build housing – it’s a flood zone. I don’t know how much fill they were planning to use, but that area is a rain shed, it’s very moist, houses built there would be prone to intermittent flooding and MOLD every year. Those problems, like the mold problem at Chico Fire Station #5, would not start popping up until people had been living there for years. And then do what? Neither the developers nor the city would be legally responsible, and the owners, like the city, owner of Station #5, would just have to pay to fix it.

Traffic is already a sufficient reason – drive the Bruce Road corridor some weekday morning. My husband and I shop Winco on that end of town and it’s getting to be a regular daytrip. Take water, Frankly, if I have to spend my entire morning gathering food, I’d rather make a sharp left at Hwy 32 and head for Susanville – two big grocery stores in Susanville, prices, lower, no 1 cent sales tax on toilet paper. And compared to dealing with traffic and pot holes all morning, Reno is just a hop-skip-and a jump. Their Raley’s is huge, and I’ve never found a transient shooting up in the bathroom.

But what bugs me the most is that City of Chico does not take care of what we already have. We have square miles of city where there is no sewer service, no sidewalks, no drains, streets haven’t been maintained for years, and now they want to add new stuff? Again, in a swamp? I didn’t even get into fire risk. The proponents of this whole new part of town will never be responsible or liable for the mess they make, they will just walk away with the money. And the city will add PERMANENT NEW TAX BASE. Meanwhile, other parts of town will sink into the same condition as what we all affectionately refer to as The College Ghetto and Chapman Town.

Do you realize it costs over a quarter million a year to clean up bum shit and slop paint on graffitti Downtown? All assessed from Downtown business and property owners. According to the Downtown Business Improvement District Annual Report

https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=805&meta_id=89942
Annual Downtown Business District Improvement Report

Downtown merchants and property owners spent $394,462.64 on “cleaning and safety programs, economic vitality programs, communication and marketing programs, special projects, and administration/advocacy.”

Here’s an itemized list of what they actually spent the money on –

Abandoned Property Plcked Up
Bags ofTrash & Leaves
Garbage cans cleaned
Glass clean Up
Graff iti/Stickers Removed
Hazardous Waste Clean-up (human)
Hazardous Waste CIean-up (pet)
Seruice Call
Sharps Clean Up
shopping Carts
spill – clean Up
Street Furniture cleaned

In other words, the money goes to remediate problems caused by “street people”, including a $12,225 “administrative fee” to the city to run the program. This is a condition that has been created by Chico City Council. They have made Downtown and other parts of Chico a total shithole over the span of about five years – ever since they signed on to a scam known as a Shelter Crisis Designation. The first time they signed it they got over $4 million. Where that money went is your guess as good as mine. There has been no money since then, just a lawsuit that makes Chico PD look like the Keystone Cops. They even call it “whack-a-mole” in city reports. Now they plan to fizzle away another $24 million in Camp Fire disaster money – I know people in Paradise who are still waiting for their checks. I’d bet my last five dollars the city of Chico will fritter that disaster money away before my friends have rebuilt their destroyed lives.

They say they will do a total makeover of Downtown Chico, starting with sewers more than 100 years old. A new street design – gee, I can still remember the last one!

Frankly, I don’t think anybody on our current council is qualified to run a birthday party, much less a town. They’re for sale, every one of them. And to let them amend the General Plan every time a developer waves a hunsky at them, well, get ready for No Name City folks.

Again, solid NO on P and O.

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Why is Measure H “in danger” if the Taxpayer Protection Act makes the ballot? Because they sold it with specific uses when it was a general use measure, “for general goverment use,” like the pension deficit and the skating rink and the pallet shelters and the lawsuits, etc.

24 Jan

I received a note from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association as well as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (TPA) sponsors that a lawsuit is still proceeding through the Supreme Court that attempts to take the TPA off the November 2024 ballot before the voters even have a chance to consider it. Your governor and legislature at work!

Chico Taxpayers Association has joined a coalition of other groups to submit an “amicus letter” to the court on behalf of the TPA, I’ll keep you posted.

According to City Manager Mark Sorensen, Measure H, the one-cent sales tax increase passed by the city of Chico in November 2022, is “in danger” if voters are allowed to pass the Taxpayer Protection Act in November ’24. The city is quickly preparing a correction measure for the 2024 ballot. The city’s new measure would have to run on the same ballot with the TPA or they risk losing years of revenue. That’s right, without knowing if the TPA will actually even make the ballot, the city of Chico has authorized $100,000 for a new ballot measure.

The TPA would require two corrections in the text of Measure H – 1) a duration, or sunset date, and 2) “the inclusion of a particular phrase“. Sorensen didn’t say, but according to the staff report, the required phrase would be, “ for general government use.“

Sorensen didn’t want to mention the “general use” phrase out loud because that was not how they sold Measure H. As you see in the following press release, issued February 2023, they continued to claim that Measure H revenues would be spent on infrastructure and public safety.

Click to access city_of_chico_press_release_-_measure_h_2-27-23_wattachments.pdf

“This measure specifically supports the Chico community, and the dollars stay here locally.” said Vice Mayor, Kasey Reynolds. “Groceries, rent, and prescription medications will not be taxed. Chico visitors will pay their fair share, so residents won’t shoulder the entire cost. The State cannot take this funding, all Measure H funds will be locally controlled in Chico.

“The additional funds will be allocated by the City Council during the regular annual budget hearings in
May and June of 2023. Some of the concepts for utilizing the funds generated through Measure H are focused on public safety and infrastructure and may include:
• Maintenance and reconstruction of roads and sidewalks.
• Maintenance of parks, open spaces, trees and vegetation management.
• Maintain neighborhood police patrols, protect 911 emergency response times, preserve the
number of on-duty firefighters and police officers, and enhance emergency and disaster
preparedness ADD Repair and maintain storm drains

Some people are easily fooled – “Some of the concepts for utilizing the funds...” How many people would have voted for H if they admitted point blank in the ballot text that the money would be “for general government use”? Like paying the pension deficit, or getting out of various lawsuits they’ve blundered us into? Another $235,000 for the Downtown Skating Rink?

Opposition, like myself, reminded everyone that because H was a 50%+1 measure, it goes to the General Fund. Council can make their promises, but they have no legal obligation to spend that money on infrastructure or public safety. Actually, the road and sidewalk work currently being done around town is mostly paid for out of state and federal grants. They’re using Paradise disaster money for a Downtown remodel.

When they first started discussing this tax publicly, former finance manager Chris Constantin said older streets all over town needed complete replacement due to years of neglect, projecting the cost at 100’s of millions. At the rate they’re going, a pothole patch here, a slurry there, that will be the day.

Meanwhile, council allocated over $18 million from the General Fund into the Pension Stabilization Trust, for this year’s “catch-up” payment toward the CalPERS pension deficit. Only a couple of years ago, it was $11 million, now it’s over $18 million – you have to ask, where is that money coming from?

H was a 50%+1 measure because a consultant, paid with money out of the General Fund, told city council and staff that a 2/3’s measure had to have specific restrictions on use, like police or roads. Having attended those morning meetings since Sorensen was a council member, I know their biggest problem with a 2/3’s measure was the restriction on spending. At the same time, they discussed the pension deficit as the biggest financial problem facing the city, and tried to pass an illegal Pension Obligation Bond. They are desperate to pay down the city’s pension deficit, under intense pressure from the employee unions who finance our local elections.

So no, they don’t want to talk about the “general use” clause, those chickenshits. That’s really the meat of this issue. The voters were promised specific uses for the money, when it was a General Fund measure.

Where is the Measure H money being used? Because all that sidewalk work is being paid for out of other funds.

13 Jan

The city is doing road work all over town. Think that’s Measure H money? Guess again. Here’s a line I cut and paste from this week’s city council agenda. These agendas are supposed to be loaded in such a way that they can be copied and shared. Try to read the following.

The 2024 Road Rehabilitatjol acquisi{ion pu.rchase price of $36,275 wiil be funded through Gas Tax funds (307), street Facility lmprovement funds'(3osi”iropr;il i;;il#e Repracement funds (943).

In the old days, I would have contacted staff and told them it had been loaded incorrectly and they would have fixed it. But these days, given the burden Council has placed on the clerk’s office, these onerous, overloaded, and oftentimes facetious agenda items all have to be loaded onto these agendas and mailed out by three people. I know they get sweet salaries and benefits, but there’s a limit to what three old ladies can do in eight hours. So, I’ll just go back and forth from screen to screen and type it. The things I do to get you people to pay attention. Here’s what it’s supposed to look like.

“ The 2024 Road Rehabilitation acquisition purchase price of $36,275 will be funded through Gas Tax funds (307), street Facility lmprovement funds (308) and Public Infrastructure Replacement funds (943).”

Read it – no, they’re not paying for all this necessary updating with Measure H funding, like they promised. And here’s the other thing – they are 30 years behind in this work, the ADA was passed in 1990. Instead of fixing the older parts of town, tax money has been going into streets, sidewalks and gutters for new subdivisions. Developers are supposed to pay for the new infrastructure out of their developer fees, which they pass along to new home buyers. Who knows where that money goes? Somebody ask Greg Webb, who, along with two other developers, successfully sued the city of Chico for about $500,000 in fees that they were able to prove had not been used on infrastructure for their subdivisions.

So, the city of Chico, 30 years behind, is playing catch-up, using gas tax funding that is supposed to be used to maintain all of our city streets, to bring old streets in crumbling, neglected parts of town, up to par. There’s obviously a big difference in cost between maintaining and rebuilding. The ADA project will require tearing out concrete, plumbing, and lights in many parts of town, along with the purchase of private property to complete the task.

This kind of catch-up work is always more costly, more time-consuming, and really irritating and inconvenient for people who have to get up every day and drive to work.

This city just ignores it’s responsibility to maintain and cries for more money whenever the inevitable happens. With all this going on, they still intend to spend COVID and Camp Fire money on a total revamp of Downtown. They will be narrowing the streets, eliminating car lanes, adding wider bike lanes and sidewalks. Even though I didn’t see anything about sewers in the written plans, my council rep Kasey Reynolds assures me that they will be replacing all the sewer lines Downtown as well.

Meanwhile, you will continue to trip on the section of blown out sidewalk in front of your house until you move to a newer neighborhood. Becca will continue to pay to have her failing septic tank pumped because the sewer lines a block from her house have yet to be completed.

So, I have to ask – are you people happy with Measure H? Are you getting anything out of Measure H? Let me know here.

There’s more than one way to fund the government – how much do you know about where your government gets and spends their money?

31 Dec

2023 out, 2024 in – this year I hope to continue to keep the foxes who are running our henhouse, well, at least somewhat nervous.

We’ve all heard California is one of the highest tax states in the union. It even has an effect on the quality of sports teams you get. My family enjoys baseball, whenever our son calls, we talk about the latest news. A player named Shohei Ohtani, has caught our attention, because he is fighting Gavin Newsom’s tax-happy agenda by deferring his $700 mil contract, essentially, until he retires and moves out of state.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/shohei-ohtani-dodgers-contract-opt-out-specifici-change-dodger-personnel.html

The good thing for the Dodgers is they get to use the money now to hire more good players. My son remarked that this will help balance the league – right now, he says, Florida is snatching up all the good players because they have no income tax. We’ll see what happens.

Did you know, all states have different ways of funding themselves? Did you know, nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) operate with no income tax – how do they do it?

9 Badass States Without State Income Taxes (and How They Get Away with It)

“…[income] tax-free states make up for the absence of income tax by charging other types of taxes, such as sales tax, corporate income tax, and property tax.” No, not all states charge all the same taxes, and some states rely on higher property, corporate and sales tax than other states. Sheesh, let’s all move to Wyoming – …” neither personal income taxes nor corporate income taxes. Property taxes and sales taxes are also low…” 

California is one of the higher tax states – not only does California have allllll the taxes, some of them are also higher than other states that charge the same taxes. Look at this article from US News –

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/states-with-the-lowest-taxes

Let’s look at Chico.

Click to access final_budget_for_web_1.pdf

Here’s the latest approved budget for city of Chico

Sales Tax $29,200,000; District Sales Tax $24,000,000; Property Tax 12,467,330; Property Tax in Lieu of VLF 9,800,000; Utility Users Tax 8,662,000; Transient Occupancy Tax 3,800,000; Other Taxes 4,679,400; All Other Revenues 1,583,901; Total Revenues $94,192,631.

I learned something new – I read an article about “Property Tax in Lieu of Vehicle License Fees” – read that and we’ll do a quiz next time. This is why the city keeps building more housing – the more they raise their property tax valuations the more VLF they get. The best way to raise property tax valuations is build new stuff, because you raise the base.

As far as where it’s going – Salaries and Benefits $52,050,314, over half the budget. And that’s just salaries – with all their additional costs, gear and such, the cops and fire take over 50% of the budget. I’m waiting to hear back from Dave Waddell about the amount of money we give the cops for “uniforms”, and how much of that goes to their personal gun hoards.

And Happy New Year to you folks out there. I hope you will make a resolution to guard your constitutional rights and make sure your elected officials are doing the job they’ve been entrusted with. As soon as somebody knows you’re not looking, it’s just too easy for them to fudge. We really owe it to the people we’ve put in these positions to help them do their jobs – just think of it that way!

Dave Waddell asks the city for public information, city spends $95,700 trying not to comply, but ends up giving him the answer anyway. Your tax money means nothing to Chico City Council.

21 Dec

I got this note from Chico SOL editor Dave Waddell regarding his efforts to find out how much money the city of Chico is spending on attorneys to keep the public “from finding out about city abuses,” like out-of-line police actions that have landed the city in court.

“This City Council wastes countless sums on attorney’s fees trying to prevent the public from finding out about city abuses. In 2022, after trying for many months to get the City to follow the law, I was forced to sue the City for records that were clearly public related to a string of police killings in Chico (mostly on Mike O’Brien’s deadly watch as police chief). Once sued, the City almost immediately started forking over records (slowly) and agreed to pay my attorney’s fees, which were about $43,600. Recently, I submitted a Public Records Act request to determine how much the City wasted on its OWN attorneys in defending against my lawsuit. They’ve slow-walked giving me those records, and I still don’t have them all. But from what they have sent me to date, I know the “conservative” City Council crapped away at least $45,575 in fees to their L.A.-based legal conglomerate. That means they wasted a total of about $90,000 to try unsuccessfully to cover up how the Police Department killed on several occasions. As I said, that figure could go higher once they finally relinquish all the records I’ve requested. Why not just follow THE LAW on public records and save the poor taxpayers $90,000 (probably more). Yep, they definitely need tax increases if they’re going to keep this up (and they are!)“

You think you live in a nice little town, and then you find out it’s just because you go to bed early. And all the money – you know, there are plenty of people who live on $45,000/year or less, like my husband and I. They made Waddell sue, which is just outrageous to me. I’m hearing what Sean Morgan said, ringing in my ears – “$100,000 is nothing…” Yes, I took that out of the context of his full comment… “to secure Measure H.” But he meant what he said – it’s tax money, it’s nothing to him to spend 10’s of thousands covering up mistakes he’s made. And I believe the rest of council feels same, given the way they spend money.

Waddell came back with an update – he has the final total amount the city spend on attorneys to keep the public out of public business.

“I wanted to provide an update about my post on City spending to thwart releasing public records the PD and the City Council find embarrassing. In 2020, I sought public records on an epidemic of Chico police killings. After the Police Department withheld, destroyed and unlawfully blacked out some records, I finally and reluctantly sued in 2022. The City quickly caved and paid my attorney’s fees of $43,637 and provided the requested records (most of them anyway). Now, I’ve been able to fully document through heavily redacted records how much the City squandered on its own attorneys trying to keep those records secret: $52,090. That’s a grand total of more than $95,700 in tax revenue down the drain. What angers me most is that amount of tax money is apparently like loose change to them. I’ll keep you updated on future obstruction because, as you know, these folks ain’t a changin’ when it comes to expensive and unlawful cover-ups.“

Thanks Dave, I don’t know how you do it, but we’re glad to have you.

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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.

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