by Jack Lee
I attended the 2012 Business Summit hosted by the Chico Chamber of Commerce yesterday at the CARD center. Among the key speakers was City Manager, Dave Burkland. He explained Chico’s main financial concern and basically it boils down to this, what will the state be doing to us? For the last four years the state has been cutting or taking from city and county budgets, and now they have dropped the RDA program. That is sure to eliminate some funding for the City at a very critical time.
Chico previously used RDA money as leverage for grants, but without that money it’s doubtful they can qualify for the same level of grant funding as before. Grants were helpful in offsetting some of the cost for city projects that ranged from infrastructure improvement to public safety.
Here’s how the current tax revenue breaks down for the general fund: 37% comes from sales tax. 25% from your property tax. 16% from utility tax and about 5% from the transient occupancy tax (bed tax).
The city has cut about 15% from it’s budget since 2007, mostly this came by not filling open positions and attrition. The city has given up 70 positions, but this is not as bad as the cuts other cities have been forced to make.
Chico has been somewhat sheltered from the full brunt of the recession thanks to our fairly stable university income. However, local property tax continues to dwindle due to declining home prices. That has taken 2.3% out of the property tax revenue. We gain a bit back in an increase of sales tax revenue and TOT tax revenue, indicating an improving economy, but we are long way from being where we were a few years ago.
After the meeting was over I didn’t feel too optimistic about 2012. It looks like there is more “hope” for change than any real planning to improve our situation. My thought was since the university is the heart of our economy, why not seek out private businesses that can integrate with this great pool of potential employees and resources. A research park would be ideal and it would not significantly impact the overall look of the community or add to pollution. We’ve got 1200 acres at the Chico airport and a lot of empty buildings, from offices to warehouses. Why not go shopping for scientific research companies looking for a good deal?
Next, I did a personal poll of people at the meeting and NONE of them were in favor of increasing the city sales tax as former Chico Manager, Tom Lando, wanted to propose on a ballot. There appears to be strong resistance to any increased taxes, because business people see it as something that will hurt our recovery and hurt them. Several civic organizations are poised to resist Lando’s tax measure if it goes forward. They are the Butte Taxpayers Alliance, the Chico Taxpayers Association, the Butte County Republican Party and others, not to mention the business community. That is a lot of opposition and at this point I seriously doubt a new tax will even qualify for the ballot.
Were Lando and the other clown (er…sorry…according to the ER they are distinguished citizens) who are pimping this sales tax increase there? If so, what did they say?
If Lando and other rent seekers and the parasites like Schwab have their way you will have a sales tax increase and a phone tax and you may have a 25 cent tax on each bag you use at the store (assuming they do not outlaw the plastic bags entirely).
And of course this does not include the state tax increases that could come out of the elections.
And God forbid the DemoNcrats get a two-thirds majority in the legislature (very possible with the rejerrymandering…er sorry…re-districting). Then the DemoNcrats could pass any tax and spending increase they wanted as the Republicans will be completely irrelevant.
Thanks Jack,
I wrote to Tom Lando and the council expressing my opposition to the tax – hope more people do same.
You’re not paying attention. Greece has, for the last four years, spent nothing in the public sector, and Greece’s economy has come to a total halt. No increase in the GNP, no loan repayment … as the Germans are slowly coming to realize.
Greece, Chico … you don’t pony up, you don’t get diddly.
Juanita, maybe we should send him a copy of my article? Nobody in our business community is for a new tax and Lando better get a clue.
I believe we are sitting on Chico’s most valuable asset and few know it. That airport industrial zone and all those empty buildings is the perfect start for a research park! Just think of the talented manpower coming out of Chico State and leaving for parts unknown because we have nothing to offer them here! It’s shame and many of these excellent students are our sons and daughters who would love to stay in their hometown and help it prosper. The city needs to come up with a plan to reach out to our high tech and scientific community and do whatever they can to lure their businesses to Chico. Can you imagine what an additional workforce of just a few hundred high paying jobs would do for this city? And that would be just the start. We need several thousand decent paying jobs to really lift Chico out of the slump and give us the revenues to keep improving the city, but also protecting our highly desirable charm and character by doing it right.
This is off topic, but didn’t know any other way to contact you.
Take a look at this link which shows what laws that apply to us but do not apply to Congress.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/03/congress-exempt-from-several-federal-laws/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fnational+%28Internal+-+US+Latest+-+Text%29
Thanx! Keep up the good work!
you remind me Jack, I just got an(other) earful on how mismanaged the airport is from a fellow who has a little manufacturing business out there. Airport Manager is not a separate job, it is considered “one of Dave Burkland’s hats,” and I’ve heard one complaint after another, in meetings, from consultants and business people.
Now that Burkland is retiring, we need to talk about a separate airport manager position.
Oh please, not another bureaucrat with a six figure salary and a pension that will cost us millions!