Hump Day, at last, thankyouverymuch. I’ve had a busy week – I got a notice that the Vina Groundwater Agency wants to tax my well – I have no well. What? That’s just fishing for revenues. I also got a notice from Waste Management that my bin was overfull last week – complete with a picture of our tenants’ bin, lid propped up two inches by a wayward piece of cardboard. My tenant’s child had a birthday party, and he tried to stuff all the packaging in one load instead of leaving it piled upside the house. They threaten an $8 fine – I see cans exactly like that up and down my street every trash day, I wonder – how many of you are just paying these fines without thinking about it? For two inches of cardboard sticking out in dry weather? Sounds like Waste Management is fishing for revenues.
Chico’s turning into Cleveland – everything’s a shakedown. So I wrote a letter to the editor about it!
I knew the skating rink wasn’t supposed to be a revenue generator – it’s “Good Will”, according to Mayor Andrew Coolidge. But, I was shocked when staff reported the rink had lost $176,363.
The rink was first proposed by a tax measure consultant in 2018 – he said resistant voters in a small Tahoe town passed their sales tax measure after the first season their rink was open. Chico’s rink was also a ploy to get illegal campers out of Downtown Plaza for Christmas shopping season. It served less than a quarter of the residents, but everybody paid for it – so far, more than $300,000 from the city’s General Fund.
I don’t know how much the city spent on the new parking kiosks, but I’ve heard and understand complaints from Downtown businesses. Here’s my question – why pay to shop or eat Downtown when retail centers and restaurants all over town have free parking?
The kiosks are a revenue measure. Before COVID the city took in more from parking fines than meter revenues. They lost a lot of that revenue during the shutdown of local businesses, now they need to pick up the pace. A kiosk is a lot quicker to ticket than a human meter reader.
The city continues to squeeze the taxpayers to cover their bad decisions. Tired of being a cash cow? Join the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, support the Taxpayer Protection Act (on the 2024 ballot), which will overturn Measure H and require 2/3’s voter approval for tax measures.
Juanita Sumner, Chico
Chico Taxpayers Association 