(June 3, 2008) -- There's no tea in Queensway Bay yet...but recent City Council approval (8-1, 7-2) of lengthy city employee contracts carrying significant taxpayer costs with no publicly explained way to pay for them, plus already spiked pensions, plus looming future costs plus current spending exceeding revenue -- plus the prospect of a still-concealed November ballot measure(s) presumed to include additional taxes/fees -- has moved some LB taxpayers to action.

A Long Beach Taxpayers Association has surfaced...launching with a journal/blog-style website.

LongBeachTaxpayers.org introduces itself as follows:

Kathy Ryan and Tom Stout have joined forces to create an outlet for all those living in Long Beach who are concerned about the direction our city government has taken over the years. It seems no matter how many new revenue streams the city collects, how often they increase fees, or how many new projects they build, the City of Long Beach is perpetually in debt.

We pay our taxes thinking we will be provided services, but we are continually having our services decreased or the threat of doing so. Long Beach was once a city that attracted people from all over the U.S., who were looking to duplicate the family environment they were leaving. These families found affordable housing in a community that offered safety and a bounty of amenities, including parks and beaches. Since those days, we have seen our beaches taken; our parklands threatened; our services in jeopardy and above all our safety compromised.

We have no illusion about returning Long Beach to "Iowa by the Sea", but the purpose of LongBeachTaxpayers.org is to allow you a venue in which you can express your frustration, instead of harboring a feeling of helplessness and apathy when it comes time to vote. We welcome your comments in our Forum, hoping you will hold our Mayor, City Council and City Manager accountable for their actions which have put our city in such a difficult financial state year after year!

LongBeachTaxpayers.org will include articles in the News section pertinent to the budget, including; taxes, bonds, salaries, infrastructure repair and public safety. We will be focusing on these issues to help educate the public on how the increase in taxes and loss of services are affected by your city and state representative's vote. Our main focus will be on pension reform, as we feel that our city officials have not lived up to their obligations to their constituents and taxpayers of Long Beach. They have allowed pension expenditures to continuously take a larger piece of the pie with little regard in future costs in services and taxes to its citizens.

We feel that taxpayer and public employees should be treated fairly when the city negotiates salaries and pension; however, when votes seem to be based on politics, we feel we need to also be heard. For your voice to be heard, we are looking for concerned taxpayers who would like to be part of a group who wants to help bring back the city they once knew.

We're not just here to complain. We welcome all serious suggestions that can improve the city's fiscal health...

Several years ago, Ms. Ryan [no relation to 2000/Prop J utility tax cut proponent Norm Ryan] was among a then-handful of local residents sounding the alarm over escalating city employee pensions and the 2002 Council action (9-0, two votes) spiking pensions of non-public safety city employees. The 2002 Council action became an issue in the 2006 LB Mayor's campaign (Foster defeating Colonna, velcro'ing him to the pension spike vote) and City Auditor's campaign (Doud ousting Burroughs, charging he failed to sound the alarm on the action).

Since then, a CA city bankruptcy (Vallejo, reported by LBReport.com) with others in hot water has pushed the issue into the mainstream.

LongBeachTaxpayers.org launches with several initial articles; here's a sampling: