See What City Att'y Proposes To Show Voters On Ballot When They Vote On Extending Blank Check Tax; If Council Approves It On <nobr>July 16</nobr>, A New State Law May Give Taxpayers Some New Teeth To Seek Changes

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See What City Att'y Proposes To Show Voters On Ballot When They Vote On Extending Blank Check Tax; If Council Approves It On July 16, A New State Law May Give Taxpayers Some New Teeth To Seek Changes

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(July 9, 2019, 6:10 a.m.) -- Below is the text that the Long Beach City Attorney's office has proposed -- and City Councilmembers can either approve or modify in an extremely important July 16 vote -- to show voters moments before they mark their ballots to make permanent City Hall's "blank check" (General Fund) Measure A sales tax. The wording lists several desirable items that the measure itself doesn't list or legally guarantee but tacks four words onto the end of the list ("and support general services") that contain the measure's real substance: it allows current and future Councils to spend the money any general fund items they wish.

In 2016, LB Councilmembers approved similar wording for Measure A. But what the Mayor/Council did in 2016 might not fly now under part of a 2017 law (pushed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass'n.) AB 194 (now codified in Elections Code section 13119) states that local government ballot proposals shall include a statement of the measure that "shall be a true and impartial synopsis of the purpose of the proposed measure, and shall be in language that is neither argumentative nor likely to create prejudice for or against the measure."

Do you believe that the proposed text as it appears above above isn't argumentative or likely to create prejudice for the measure?

[Scroll down for further.]

If no Councilmember moves to change the proposed ballot text and the Council approves it as now proposed, taxpayers' remedy would be a legal challenge, presumably citing the new 2017 state law.

In the three years since LB voters approved Measure A, the Council has restored 22 out of 208 budget-erased citywide deployable police officers, restored Engine 8 (Belmont Shore) and Rescue 12 (NLB) but not Fire Engines 17 (Stearns Park) [is seeking a fed'l FEMA grant to temporarily restore Engine 17], Engine 101 (Stn. 1/added protection for downtown high rises) or Engine 18 (Palo Verde/Wardlow) and funded a number of infrastrucure and street repair projects. Measure A's cash infusion ($50-$60 million annually) also effectively freed-up other General Fund sums that the Mayor/Council spent to grant sizable raises to LB's politically-active police and firefighter unions that primarily funded the campaign for Measure A, and gave raises to city management (including some in the "$200,000" club who have now advanced (pay + benefits) into the "$300,000 club.")

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