Initiative would protect local funds from state

Lodi News-Sentinel

January 9, 2010

By Maggie Creamer

Fed up with the state taking millions from local governments, city leaders are joining forces throughout California in an effort to ban the legislature from taking funds from cities in the future.
The constitutional amendment would close loopholes in state law that would prevent the Legislature from borrowing or redirecting any taxes from local agencies. It would include any money marked for local services, redevelopment projects, transit funding and transportation improvements.

The Lodi Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the initiative and several councilmembers have said they plan to collect signatures around Lodi to get the issue on the ballot in November.
As the director of the Central Valley Division for the League of California Cities, Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce said the league broke down per capita the minimum number of signatures each city needs to get, and Lodi needs to get 954.
"If we don't tie the hands of the state so they don't keep doing this to us and balance the budget within their own means instead of on the backs of cities, this will keep happening over and over," Mounce said.

Even though voters have passed propositions to prevent the state from raiding city funds, the Legislature has still been taking money, said Stephen Qualls, the league's Central Valley Regional Manager.
In the last budget, the state took $2 billion in property taxes from local governments, even though voters passed Proposition 1A in 2004, which allows the state to borrow these funds only during fiscal emergencies.
"What's the emergency? They can't balance their budget. It is not a flood or natural disaster. They need to face the hard issues," Mounce said.
The state also took $2.05 billion in redevelopment funds and shifted $910 million in transit money from transit agencies, as well as discussed or proposed other ways to take money from cities, according to a document from the Californians to Protect Local Taxpayers and Vital Services, who are proposing the initiative.

Having not read the initiative, Jennifer Wonnacott, who is the spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, said she could not comment on it specifically. But she did say that during the last budget cycle, Huber voted against "raiding local treasuries" with her vote against using Prop 1A money to balance the budget.
By getting the initiative on the ballot, it will send a message to the Legislature, said Pat Patrick, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
"People recognize if the state's economy is going to improve, it will start at the local level," Patrick said.
Councilman Bob Johnson said he also plans to collect signatures.
"I just think if we want to keep the levels of services to where citizens want it to be, we need to retain revenue," Johnson said.