Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Dear Mayor, City Council, City Manager, and Staff - Sales Tax Proposal

By Clayton Watch

Dear Mayor Diaz and City Council, (Place in Public Comment)

I appreciate Councilmember Holly Tillman bringing the sales tax proposal to our attention, but it appears she once again wants to take the least line of resistance to a real problem.

For over two years both Councilmember Tillman and Councilmember Pete Cloven have been pushing for multiple tax increases without knowing anything about our income and expenses, let alone what we have in reserve. WHY?

I do believe, if needed, the community would support a sales tax increase versus trying to sunset the existing landscape maintenance tax in 2027 and then trying to pass a new general parcel tax - but now is not the time.

However, before moving forward with any tax proposals, I think we should take a closer look at the city's finances and reserves.

For this letter, I will be focusing on the amount we have been taxed over the years without the full benefit. This is called OVERTAXATION!

The reserves appear quite high - around $8-12 million based on what I've seen. I'm curious why such a large percentage of tax revenue wasn't used for the services that were promised to citizens. Let me repeat . . . WASN'T USED!

Additionally, why does the landscape district have over $300k in reserves when the landscaping looks terrible? Remember the “Weeds Gone Wild / A Town Divided” flyer? It’s not about money, it’s about leadership and getting the job done, but that's a discussion for another day.

Some reserves are prudent, but 150% +/- seems excessive. It’s plain and simple, it appears the citizens were overtaxed to build up these reserves. What was the rationale? What purpose did the money serve? It surely didn’t serve the citizens.

I'm glad the council has agreed to move some of the reserves to the general fund, leaving about 40% of the annual budget in reserve - that seems more reasonable.

It is now time to allocate our excess tax dollars towards the improvements our city's leaders pledged to the citizens and make improvements to our city.

We need to closely examine the city budget and 5-year projection numbers over the next year, or so, while carefully spending our unspent/overtaxed dollars on things that were promised.

I encourage citizens to review the city's finances at https://cleargov.com/california/contra-costa/city/clayton/checkbook (https://cleargov.com/california/contra-costa/city/clayton/checkbook) and identify any unnecessary spending. (Who in their right mind would spend $800.00 on pictures for the city website, let alone hire consultant after consultant, and on top of that pay our city engineer over $400,000?) We need to get our house in order once and for all.

As I mentioned at the last City Council Meeting, we should focus on “needs” rather than “wants.” The city should spend taxpayer funds with the same fiscal prudence and care they would their own money, not recklessly like drunken sailors.

I'm happy to discuss this further. Please let me know your thoughts on a prudent path forward, but in my opinion, Councilperson Tillman, a sales tax at this time is not warranted or justified. Every problem can’t be solved by money.

We appreciate you for reading this article.

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