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Frank Hotchkiss: Santa Barbara Mayor Puts City First with Proposed Ballot Initiatives
You may have heard: Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider has proposed putting four measures on the city ballot for the upcoming November 2012 election.
The proposed measures are:
» 1. All city employees who participate in the California Public Employee Retirement System should pay their full share for their retirement rather than only part of it, as they now do. This would save the city $2 million to $2.5 million a year. Requiring the police, fire and other city employees to contribute fully to their own retirement will take the issue off the table in future contract negotiations. This has been a bone of contention for a long time, and frankly has given the unions a black eye in the public purview.
» 2. Downtown businesses that serve liquor after 11 p.m. — pretty much only the clubs — would have a business license fee increase to pay for the cost of police enforcement there, since the police have to focus so much attention on this part of town as the bars close. This would raise about $250,000 annually.
» 3. Add a half-cent sales tax citywide on everything purchased by all of us in the city (probably raising $10 million annually).
» 4. Agreement to split the results of the tax increase described in No. 3 evenly between the city and our schools.
Even in difficult economic times such as these, it may be desirable to seek more funds to accomplish civic goals, such as better and more successful handling of indigents, reopening the Main Library on Monday, increasing the number of police on the street and many other improvements. While the City Council could have undertaken these initiatives on its own, Schneider has wisely (in my opinion) turned to the public at large to establish your preference.
What happens next?
First, all four of the initiatives must garner enough voter signatures — about 9,000 — to be placed on the ballot. These must be collected by early June.
Secondly, a majority of us — you, me and our fellow citizens — must approve the measures at the ballot on Nov. 6, assuming enough signatures are obtained. Thus we have two opportunities to state our preferences: Once by signing on to this for the ballot, and a second time at the ballot itself.
Finally, the sales tax and the retirement contribution measures are interdependent. Both must pass, or neither passes. Either we are all contributing, including ourselves and our public employees, or none of us is.
As you can probably tell from the tone of this letter, I think the mayor’s initiatives are smart and courageous. She is putting herself in the crosshairs of fire, police and other unions for the sake of the city at large. She understands that any suggestion of a new tax is not going to win immediate or universal approval. And obviously the downtown clubs are going to object vociferously, although they haven’t been paying for their extra police coverage for years.
In closing, let me add that, unfortunately, Gov. Jerry Brown has emptied our purse for the sake of the state’s poor economic policies by shutting down our Redevelopment Agency and taking all the money we saved in it over the years. These initiatives seek to make up the difference.
I think it would be great to eliminate PERS contributions from labor negotiations and have the employees contribute all they should to their own retirement, just as you and I must do for ourselves. Our schools are operating in the red. Good schools are essential for a successful community. Without them, a city will deteriorate.
And I have always argued for more police and more effective social services to better handle the indigents who live — and die — on our streets. My goal remains to dramatically reduce or eliminate our public streets as a place to dwell.
Thank you for taking the time to read such a lengthy letter. For more on this, go to www.InvestInSantaBarbara2012.com, where Schneider explains it in greater detail.
— Frank Hotchkiss is a Santa Barbara city councilman.
Comments
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» on 02.10.12 @ 03:15 PM
Sorry, but NO I can not support this.
The city needs to restructure all salaries, pensions, time-off, have the ability to terminate for non-performance and outsource department and task that are not providing value to the taxpayers.
Anything else is just kicking the can down the road and will require more and more money.
It is time to stop this bad behavior now.
» on 02.10.12 @ 04:44 PM
Frank, please tell me you’re not supporting this package of new taxes for your “taxed-out” constituents. With friends like you, who needs enemies. If you want to reform public employee pensions, please don’t attach it to a bunch of new taxes. Now that I know your position on this issue, you have lost my vote. Where is Michael Self when you need her.
» on 02.10.12 @ 09:32 PM
Mr. Hotchkiss,
You, the Mayor, and the rest of those who are packaging these bills all together apparently are so clueless, it’s laughable.
Are you not aware of how much financial struggle so many local families have undergone the last 4 years?
There’s zero chance these initiatives will pass. They may not even make the ballot.
There’s a huge voter backlash building.
» on 02.10.12 @ 09:42 PM
Interesting to see that the Mayors sole supporter at this point is Hotchkiss. Pathetic. Borne of bitterness over loss of RDA, and antagonism towards public safety collective bargaining, this match made in heaven is not looking too fruitful. Baaaaddddd job of laying foundation.
» on 02.11.12 @ 04:40 PM
I think that Frank is taking the right, and perhaps courageous stand, on this issue. He’s putting the welfare of our community first. Thanks, Frank.
» on 08.22.12 @ 10:02 PM
RDA money was state money to start with.
Did the California Secretary of State authorize Helene Schneider, an individual, or Mayor Helene Schneider, an elected official representing the City of Santa Barbara, to circulate these ballot initiatives. I believe Schneider is inappropriately representing her personal initiative as one authorized by city government.
Schneider made a comment at the Bacara meeting with county and Goleta representatives that she hopes to have additional funds available to rehire 80(?) city employees.
The people of Santa Barbara are at the top of the city’s org. chart, and most of us aren’t willing to support the misuse of tax dollars by a corrupt government to support corrupt police and other city employees. The insert in the city’s May utility bill is a clear statement that the city of Santa Barbara doesn’t understand that the function of government is to acknowledge and enforce laws and provide services to local residents.
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