Posted on 09/05/2010 11:32:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Some cities in California are so bloated in debt and other problems they are considering dissolution. Mercury News asks is this The End of Half Moon Bay?
Between budget losses and lawsuit payments, Half Moon Bay's financials have become so dire that if a local sales tax measure doesn't pass this November, officials say they may have to disincorporate.
City leaders have been using the "D" word for a few weeks now as they try to persuade voters to pass Measure K, a one-cent sales tax increase that would help the city balance its budget with an extra infusion of $1.4 million per year for the next seven years.
Dissolving Half Moon Bay -- handing the city's budget, operations and services to San Mateo County -- would be an absolute last resort, but the city may not have many other options left, City Councilman John Muller said.
At first glance, disincorporation could save taxpayers some money: no more city administration to support. Police services would be contracted out, and the county would cover planning, building and public works projects from its offices in Redwood City.
City Manager Michael Dolder admits disincorporation is one of the options on the table now. The City Council already cut $900,000 from the current budget -- including half its employees -- and imposed furloughs on those who remain. Some of the cuts were needed to pay for the Beachwood lawsuit settlement, a $15 million burden the city will shoulder in bond payments for the next 20 years.
Disincorporation is so rare in California that it's almost without precedent. The last city to do it, Cabazon in Riverside County, had fewer than 2,000 residents and no functional government to speak of when it voted to give up cityhood.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Pretty town, that won’t change.
Wait till all the retiring state employees start to collect on those pension benefits. That was like getting a winning lottery ticket for them.
They should have all along been getting lower than average wage with zero retirement in exchange for a steady job.
As unions donated to politicians, the politicians raised the hell out of the union pay and benefits.
That is what needs to become null and void IMO.
It would be better to liquidate the politicians and labor union officials who caused the mess.
Good idea . If any of the clowns responsible for the Beachwood mess are still around, they could pose for a poster for dis-incorporation. They gotta quit smoking those artichokes.
Some jobs are much more hazardous than others. For instance myself working for the state dealing with mentally ill and criminally insane teens. I'm injured for life and it took four years of fighting and sleeping in tents before I EARNED my pension. Due to rules when the attack came I was not able to lift a finger unless another staff member was present.
I agree with you some even most California pensions are incredible especially with top heavy administration that push paper but what about folks like us that have disabilities due to on the job injuries with patients or prisoners? What are folks going to do when there are no guards, techs, nurses and doctors to deal with the prison and mentally ill populations that are way too dangerous to place back out on the streets? Do they deserve anything or are folks going to cut us off? If cut off and since the state has no plans to re educate me due to cutbacks my future from what many folks are saying( cut off all state pensions) seem very harsh. What of all the sheriffs that paid their dues or firemen?
For those cities which will not cut spending and do not keep tight reins on their employees which result in judgments against those cities, I say, “Fine. Dissolve the city. Just make certain that all public employees are pink slipped first.”
Several Counties are on the path of bankruptcy as well. Trinity was on the edge just a few years ago and Modoc is there now. I think several will go over this year with the deferral of revenue from the state and the passing on of more and more state duties to local government.
Kill them. Shoot, hang and beat them. ( It's amazing how many 'crazy' people are never 'crazy' around those that are non warped into the modern superstitions of the psycho industry.)
You are really injured. But what about the other 90% who are not? Just faking their injury to get the full benefits of retirement from the gov trough? I know of a few who did this. It makes me sick but the taxpayers are SCREWED.
Just because you work the gov doesn’t make you any more special than the guy at a mine or a construction job, etc. who gets injured.
Good luck.
I have never understood the desire for all these small California communities to incorporate as cities. If you incorporate, you have to pay extra local taxes to pay for services. If you stay unincorporated, the county has to pay for everything, and those costs are subsidized by people who live in incorporated cities!
It may take five years...but I don’t see how every city...every county...and even the state...can avoid complete bankruptcy. If I were a retiree in California today...I’d be putting the house up for sale and leaving quickly. There’s major problems brewing here.
I have relatives in Half Moon Bay. They deserve all of this and more. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of aging hippies.
Cities do provide for services that County does not. Our County has a large unicorporated area that wanted the County to give it money to provide local services. They wanted their local onsite police and fire service paid for, their dirt roads paved, their sewer/water systems provided. It was pointed out that the County does not provide these services to the other unicorporated areas. New paved roads, local cops, fire dept. and sewer/water systems are all city, not County functions. They will have to form Service Districts and tax themselves or form a city.
Well, we live in a large retirement community in unincorporated Riverside County, CA. Nearly all of the nearby cities are contract cities and contract with the county for their police and fire protection. We get the same protection as they get. The county maintains our roads and provides the same services as the cities provide. Residents of the cities have a untility tax of 4 to 8% on their electric, gas, water, phone and cable TV bills. We DO NOT. Plus, some of those city residents pay added property taxes for services that the county provides to us as part of our standard property tax. We would have to be nuts to incorporate.
I just drove through Vallejo early last week. Vallejo is the first California city to file for bankruptcy. I gues Half Moon Bay is next. Then......? California is gone.
Of course, if they really believe that a one-cent tax will remain at one cent long, they deserve everything they get.
My sympathy meter hovers around -75
You are correct. However, the population is so pity driven that there is not the spiritual strength necessary to excrete the criminal element.
Improvements like paved roads, sewer service, etc. are not included, you have to get by on what you have now. Police protection? In theory, yes, but you'd be better off calling the County Sheriff.
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