Protecting Local Revenues

By Arne Simonsen

Keeping local revenues local to support city and county services such as police and street repairs is essential.

Since 1991, the State has been taking city and county revenues to fund their overspending. This is money that could have used to repair our sidewalks and streets, pay for additional police officers, and improve our infrastructure.

As the President of the East Bay Division of the League of California Cities, I have worked with the 33 cities in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to end the theft of local revenues.

The 478 cities in California have formed a coalition with the California State Association of Counties and the California Special Districts Association, called LOCAL (Leave Our Community Assets Local).

We successfully passed Proposition 1A with over 87% of the vote to constitutionally protect our property tax, sales tax and vehicle license fee revenue.

Yet, more work is still needed in the Legislature to bring our State Budget into balance without raising taxes and fees.

Creating a healthy buisness climate in California will in itself bring in more revenue to the State through existing sales and income taxes, as we have seen this year.

Nevada and Arizona have been aggressively advertising to lure California businesses to their states. California needs to continue its reforms to Workers' Compensation Insurance, Tort reform, eliminating frivilous lawsuits that end up costing consumers, and streamling regulations while protecting our air and water quality.