• Measure AA – Wildomar Public Safety and City Services AKA Tax Increase

I really hate happy talk no matter where it's coming from. 

link to definition.

If you look at the recent mailing by the city, it's basically interwoven with happy talk. Happy Talk soothes the ear, but leaves a lot out of the mix.

"How so?" you may be asking?

First, tell me how you can "maintain" and "improve" something at the same time; sounds like it's from the same logic that brought us the classic "a little bit pregnant". 

Either you're maintaining something, or you're improving it. 

If you're simply "maintaining" it, by definition you are NOT "improving" it. Conversely, if you're improving something... you've done more than simply maintain it. 

Am I a stickler? 

Probably, but words mean things and shouldn't be trifled with when it comes to the phrasing in a ballot measure that looks to raise taxes.

Side 1 of the official mailer.
The issues mentioned are true enough, but $1,700,000 will barely scratch the surface.

Side 2 of the official mailer.

If I would have been tasked with writing the mailer that was recently sent out, I would have been very direct, and it would have gone more like this:

Wildomar Rap opinion time

When we voted on becoming a city a decade ago, there was never going to be enough revenue to have the things that other cities have. That includes very important things like Police and Fire services at levels our neighboring cities have always enjoyed.

You have two choices when it comes to Measure AA.

First, you can accept the truth that this city needs more revenue, so that proper levels of emergency services can be purchased. Which would necessitate a YES vote on Measure AA...

OR

Your second option is to vote down Measure AA and understand that means Wildomar will always have too few cops and fire personnel. 

The claims in the city mailer are a tad rosy for my liking. How far do you think that $1.7M will stretch? 

We already have learned that the return of the VLF funds (about $2M per year) nearly ALL went to first responders when we increased the number of patrols earlier this year... plus the RSO is looking for a rate increase as we speak.

That's because when the VLF funds were stripped away, the police service patrols went from two officers on duty during the day, three at swing shift and two at night down to one officer on the day shift, two during swing shift and one at night. 

Another way to quantify it is that we went from 70 service hours a day (in 2011), to 40 service hours a day (until earlier this year), and recently back up to the 70 hours we had in 2011.

If you've heard any city council member tell you that we are back up to the previous levels of police, that isn't quite accurate. 

Yes, we are back up to the same number of shifts that we had in 2011 (or 70 service hours per day) but since 2011 we've gained nearly 5,000 additional residents. Which means our cop per 1000 residents has gone down... not increased or stayed the same.

We're here now, and whatever promises you heard about no need to raise taxes by those urging a yes vote on cityhood, need to be forgotten once and for all. 

They were promises based on hopes, not based on facts... otherwise, we wouldn't be looking down the barrel of a 12.9% increase in local sales tax. 

One additional penny equals an increase of almost 13%.
A 1% increase wouldn't even have amounted to a tenth of a cent.

Either vote to increase the budget by way of Measure AA so that we can increase the policing levels, or vote against the tax increase and watch our officer to resident ratio continue to dwindle. It's your choice

This is how I would have written it. Blunt and to the point.

But, before you think I'm a big meanie, poking holes in the city's somewhat optimistic claims of what can be purchased for $1.7M, you should see my thoughts on the official opposition to Measure AA. 

The writers of it must have worked over time to sound so vacuous... unless (gulp) that's their actual A-Game.

PRO TIP: No one cares about the 2008 BS in 2018.

Link to Argument Against Measure AA

Why do these people remain stuck in the past? Why do they think that the Wildomar of 2018 wants to say, "Ah ha, see, I told you so!" to promises from of 2008? 

NO ONE CARES IF YOU CAN SAY, "See I told you so". Turn the page already.

This is about having enough money to buy additional hours of police patrol services, and maybe increase fire protection. Nothing more.

The reason this isn't offered as a "special tax" is because, for some inexplicable reason, special taxes take a 2/3 vote.

Link to Argument in Favor

Imagine how inane that is. The public is asked to vote for a "first responders" tax, something that would be earmarked for only those specific uses, and that takes 67%?

However, for a general tax, something that goes into the general fund... that only takes a simple majority. 

That is 180 degrees backward from what it should be, but there's no sense in barking at the moon over it. It's what it is.

Link to City Attorney's Analysis

The city council has pledged to spend the money the way they've advertised. With an oversight committee to ensure that the money goes where it has been promised. If they fail to live up to the bargain, then vote them out.

Link to ordinance

Though roads are mentioned, I wouldn't expect major renovations from such a small sum of money. 

Just to keep things in perspective, the substandard slurry job done in Windsong Valley several years ago cost in excess of half a million dollars, and wasn't actually ever even finished. (Check out parts of Prairie and Gierson if you're in doubt.) Roads cost a lot more money than what will be left over from the first responder's annual needs. 

Link to Measure AA – Wildomar Public Safety and City Services

What city council voting district are you in?

Link to interactive district map

If you want a city council member that is a straight talker, and will go against the grain when necessary, remember me when you're filling out your ballot.

Link to campaign website.

If you like the status quo, and want things to stay the way they've been for the last ten years... I'm probably not the candidate for you.

•                •                •

Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.
– Abe Lincoln

Wildomar Rap would interpret "materials for our future support and defense" as "more cops" and "better roads" if Honest Abe had been talking about The W.

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• Measure V, How Are You Voting?

What's your thoughts on higher taxes?

I've never been in a big proponent of them myself. Lower taxes were part of the allure in choosing Wildomar over the surrounding communities when we moved here.

(...and don't bother trying to tell me that bonds aren't taxes. If I'm required to pay the government money —it's a tax, no matter what euphemism you'd prefer.)

What I really hate is when they are pushed on people under the pretext of 
"it's for the children."

If you vote against school bonds, you're a big meanie!

I first heard of Measure V at a recent city council meeting when a spokesman for LEUSD pitched the virtues of the proposed $105,000,000 bond measure. 

At the meeting, it was shown what tax payers of other districts are paying, and those of us in the boundaries of LEUSD were pretty much ridiculed because we've been paying ZERO on school bonds.

Heidi Dodd, LEUSD Board Trustee, was quoted in the Press Enterprise on the subject and seemed to lament that we were one of the few districts that didn't have a school bond.

As if that was a bad thing or something.

“We’re one of the few school districts in the whole county that doesn’t have a school bond.”

LEUSD Board Trustee Heidi Dodd

Link to quoted article

Before getting all teary eyed about school bonds, and before expecting people to vote for such boondoggles, please do some investigation on the topic. 

I suggest you follow this link to an article by California Watch where they tell about a new high school in Riverside (Hillcrest). 

To finish building Hillcrest High School, the Alvord district issued a $57 million bond in 2011. By 2046, when the loan is paid off it will have cost taxpayers $375 million – 6.6 times the principal.

Below is a video link with California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer discussing how some bonds work.

On the other side of Ortega Highway is Capistrano Unified School District, which encompasses an area from San Clemente through Laguna Niguel to Aliso Viejo.

They are looking to get a $889 million bond passed, obligating homeowners to $43 per $100k assessed value.

Think about it for a sec. With the cost of houses there, that would be an extra $250 per year... and that's on the lower end.

Link to OC Register article about it

The bonds that LEUSD are proposing are ONLY going to cost us $19 per $100K... or roughly $50 for the average home.

To have a well run society, it costs money. In fact, it costs a lot of money. Problem is, you can't keep going to the same well constantly looking for more.

If you want more, you need to create more. Not simply squeeze the current taxpayers, all the harder, for a few extra drops of blood.

That goes for a lot of things that our taxes pay for, including ALL public employees... particularly the emerging special class known as first responders. (I love the cops and fire guys, but if you were honest about it, the ever rising costs are way out of control.)

If there isn't enough cash in the kitty to get the things LEUSD wants, then make a better budget, or lobby Sacramento for a better allocation of funds.  
(Too bad school children aren't insignificant fish in the Delta).

But what really has cemented my NO vote on Measure V is the Jean Hayman campus. 

It was closed back in 2008 due to budgetary concerns. The idea was that they would remodel it, then reopen it, when the need arose again.

Lo and behold it was discovered that it was on a fault line (welcome to California, Einstein). So it was forever removed from consideration as a school and has remained dormant ever since.

It just so happens that it would make a great community center for Wildomar (like the old Butterfield campus has done for Lakeland Village). Thing is, the price tag is too steep for the city, and that doesn't count the amount of money it would take to refurbish it.

Since it's been closed, the district has canabalized some parts for other schools, and then there are the copper thieves. 

Excluding the purchase price, it's conservatively estimated to be more than $800K to get it back up to code and ready for use.

Here's a link to a Press Enterprise article discussing the school, and how the district is shopping it around. The 2011 estimated value was $2.5 million. 

That campus needs to be turned over to the people of Wildomar, and at NO COST. 

The taxpayers already bought and paid for it, and I don't need anyone telling me that Sacramento made up some hokum saying why we don't own it.

I may be the only one in town to tie together Measure V and the Jean Hayman campus, but I can't imagine any Wildomartino voting to tax themselves (at least $50 a year) while they have spent years getting short shrift in regards to that long shuttered, and rapidly deteriorating, campus. 

Thoughts on government agencies that seem to think they're above the very people that pay for them to exist: 

Remember back at September 11th, and how we learned that the FBI and CIA weren't sharing info with each other?

Most of us thought that was absurd when our common needs suffered due to it.

I'm not sure if the LEUSD knows this or not, but they are fully owned by the local taxpayers, and they aren't a private company that should think they actually own anything. 

They are simply chosen stewards of some of the community's assets.

I went over to the "Yes on V" website and I couldn't find a single word about the cost. Not for the face value of the bonds, nor how much to repay them or even how much each homeowner would be responsible for. 

I even looked in the FAQ section, and it appears that no one cares enough to ask them such things.

Link to Measure V webpage

Here is a link to the LEUSD's press release on Measure V

Small disclaimer here. I've been meaning to blog about this topic, and it was at the recent Coffee With The Mayor that I decided now was the time. 

A concerned scout mom was trying to talk me into voting for it, she had compelling points, but in the end they weren't enough to bridge the bond morass/chasm (yes, it's both a morass and a chasm at the same time).

For me, it's NOT about the children. 

It's about the money, and when guys like Herb Calderon (Alvord School District, in Riverside) say things like, "I know the state treasurer is upset with me, he indicated that guys like me, that put these deals together, we should be fired, but people need to realize that —yeah you know your kids are going to be saddled with this debt, and their kids and so forth,  but look what they're getting. They're still getting a quality educational building," it tells me it is all about the money (not the kids)... but from the wrong angle.

Measure EE was a 2014 $144 million Jurupa Unified School District Bond Issue

With all that said, I predict that Measure V will pass. 


Look at the graphic to the left. Bonds of all types have been passing with greater and greater ease the last few years.

It only takes 55% on a bond measure, and if people were suckered into Prop 47, because it was nicknamed "The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act", it's a lead pipe cinch that V will win too.

That doesn't count statewide school bond Measure 51 

That one is for $9 billion and even old Governor Moonbeam is against it: 

• “I am against the developers’ $9 billion bond. It’s a blunderbuss effort that promotes sprawl and squanders money that would be far better spent in low-income communities.” – Governor Jerry Brown 

One of the few times that he and the Howard Jarvis group are on the same page.

•          •          •

The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.
— Will Rogers, 1879-1935

Wildomar Rap has never believed throwing money at an issue is the answer, but is willing to test the theory if you're will to throw the money this way.

• No Tax Increase Talk From Wildomar

Wildomar has long had budget constraints, and those that are up on things understand that our city has been deprived of roughly $2 million per yer by Governor Brown's decision to take away VLF funds (Vehicle License Fees) several years ago that every other city gets (except the four newest cities in Riverside County). 

Yet we're still faced with the same reality of rising costs for public safety, at about a 7% per year clip, as our neighboring cities.

We've recently seen Hemet attempt to pass a 1% sales tax increase with a ballot measure. 

Since it was a special purpose tax it required a 2/3 majority to pass. It fell about 4% short.

But that election result didn't deter them, it just got them looking to put a general tax increase on the ballot this time... which happens to only need a 50% vote to pass.

Let me digress for a moment

Wouldn't it make more sense that if one of the two tax types were to only take a simple majority to pass, it be the Special Purpose tax, that has narrow parameters... and the General tax, that just goes into the general budget, be the one that would take a super majority?  

I was at a public meeting recently where there was a legislative update portion. It was there that a Temecula city councilmember spoke glowingly of the new 1% sales tax increase they just approved for the ballot.

That's with an existing surplus of $21 million from what I heard.  

Here's a link to a recent Press Enterprise editorial that mentions both Hemet and Temecula's city council putting such measures on the 2016 November ballot.

BTW, adding one cent to the existing sales tax is NOT a 1% increase. Currently the sales tax in Temecula is 8%. Adding a full percentage point is actually an increase of 12.5%.

Temecula has paid many thousands of their taxpayer's dollars to a polling firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates, also known as FM3, to help ensure tax increases are a viable option for their city to pursue.
 

Link to Press Enterprise opinion piece on the topic

 Also looking to raise taxes is Menifee, by the same 12.5%, but they'd tell you it's 1%, since it would only be an additional penny per dollar.

So I sent out an email to all five of the city council members of Wildomar with the following question:

 WR  You've seen that several surrounding communities are looking to place tax increase measures on the ballot to shore up their budgets. Wildomar is facing the same issues with ever increasing costs for first-responders. Has there been talk of a tax increase here, and if not, do you see one on the horizon? If so, or even if not, what would the steps be before such a thing would be voted on by the council?

Mayor Bridgette Moore

Our efforts are, and have been, focused on recovering our $2million General Fund recurring revenues that the State took from us, starting in July 2011.  

Hopefully, the legislation to restore our annual funding will be approved soon or at least when the Governor is replaced in January 2019.  

The other cities, proposing sales tax increases, are trying to maintain their current service levels for pubic safety and basic services because the property tax revenues from residential development does not cover the cost of services.  

In Wildomar, we have taken the necessary steps to assure that new development does not have a negative fiscal impact on our General Fund. 

Could the residents of Wildomar benefit from a sales tax increase?  Of course! Currently, the city sales tax revenue is about $1.3 million per year. 

It all comes down to, what kind of a community do you want and are our citizens willing to pay for?

IF there was to be discussion on a sales tax increase, it would be put on a future agenda item.  The public would be invited to attend and give their input.

Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Walker

No, there is no plan to make a special tax to cover the shortfall. I have always said to increase revenue through the commercial enterprises. Making it easier for businesses to come here and get established.  That's my plan. Living within our means is what I have to do and making cuts is always the first option. 

Councilmember Marsha Swanson

I am, and have always been, against raising tax. If I am working and don't make enough money to pay my bills I have several choices.  Spend less, ask my boss for a raise, or get a second job. I always think personally I can do with less.  The citizens may not want to do with less and that is their choice to make.  

I have not heard of anyone with the city or council talking about asking the citizens to raise taxes.

The comments from the other two councilmembers didn't arrive in time for publication, but I'll happily add them to this blog once I get them.

Nice to know that our elected officials are
not looking to raise our taxes.

There is a candidate for city council, Dustin Nigg, that is running in district 2 (The Farm) and I thought it would be good to get his input on this too. 

Since he's not on the council, I had to reword the question a bit.

 WR  You've seen that several surrounding communities are looking to place tax increase measures on the ballot to shore up their budgets. Wildomar is facing the same issues with ever increasing costs for first responders. Do you have a position on tax increases as a candidate for city council?

Dustin Nigg, candidate 2nd district

As a conservative I tend to flinch when additional taxes are mentioned because I believe that there are other avenues to broach before discussing tax increases.  Questions I would ask myself would be 

1. Are we doing enough to facilitate a growth in business for our city?  The idea is to bring businesses to our community which thereby creates jobs and money in our city.

2. Is there any wasteful spending in the current budget? Can we use money that is allocated elsewhere?

3. How does this benefit our community and is it important to our citizens?

I feel that public safety is important to our community and is an important issue for our citizens but I would be hesitant to support any increase in tax until I was satisfied that we as representatives of our community had done EVERYTHING possible to find a way to fix the problem without a new tax measure.

I've extended an invitation to Dustin to be part of a "Better Know A Candidate" blog, as I also have with incumbent Councilmember Bob Cashman. 

If all goes well, those should be coming online in late September, early October as we get closer to election day.

•        •        •

The future should be important to you. That's where you'll spend the rest of your life.

—Grandma from Family Circus, Bil Keene

Wildomar Rap looks to the heavens, shoots for the stars but knows that terra firma is the place to keep one's feet.