EDITOR: I read the article
“Voters will have to OK new city fees” in the June 15 edition of
the Morgan Hill Times with great interest.
EDITOR:
I read the article “Voters will have to OK new city fees” in the June 15 edition of the Morgan Hill Times with great interest.
I was very interested in the comments attributed to the City Manager Ed Tewes. If I understood the article correctly we have a shortfall of $800,000 this year and that will increase to $1.2 million next year. He noted that the Aquatics Center would cost the general fund $1 million to operate. There wasn’t any specific amount noted but it was implied that the new Community and Cultural Center would also be impacting the general fund.
I find this very interesting because when the City Council (Dennis Kennedy and others) pushed to extend the RDA, on their second attempt, made a commitment to the community that the RDA would not build any projects such as the Aquatics Center or Community Center unless it could be shown that they would be self sufficient. There was a real concern that any new facilities would be a drain on an already strapped city budget.
They also committed that the RDA would not spend any more money in any year than the RDA was scheduled to take in. This again was to squash the fact that under the original RDA a large portion of the funds was to pay interest on bonds. I remember this specifically and I am sure anyone can go back to articles in the the Times and even the voter pamphlet to verify this. I remember this very well because I was one of the people telling voters that giving the city this much money in a blank check was a bad idea.
Unfortunately, it turns out that those of us who were against the RDA extension were correct. They city council has spent us into a position where we are faced with cutting essential services to pay for “operating these wonderful projects” or raise our taxes.
At the time of the RDA vote all sitting City Council members supported the RDA extension and said that if they did a poor job we could toss them out of office. I think we have seen what they are capable of and they should be tossed out of office for incompetence. I know I will remember their commitment to the voters and I will hold them to their word. I would urge others to do the same. I for one do not want to raise my taxes to pay for non-essential services. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Aquatics Center and the new Community Center, but not at the expense of fire or police.
Remember the Washington Monument syndrome. It is taught in government classes. If you want to raise taxes for non-essential services tell voters that there is not enough money for essential services and if the voters refuse to increase taxes make the cuts where the public is affected. The first time this was done it was done by the federal parks services and they closed the Washington Monument. The public was outraged and they got the money they wanted. That is exactly what our City Council and city manager is trying to do once again.
I have been a resident of Morgan Hill for 26 years and this is the third time the same tactics have been tried. It worked the first time. Some of us were smart enough and involved enough the second time to stop them. Now they are trying it again hoping that us old-timers have left and the new residents don’t care enough to understand the tricks of government spending.
Don’t let them get away with it. Do not approve any new taxes. Make the City Council (most of them were the same ones who made the RDA extension commitment) keep their word.
Dale Matteson, Morgan Hill
