My Thoughts on This Year's Hot City Issues

By Walter Maurer

Key issues in this election include Measure N, the City's budget, and the Facilities Modernization Project (a.k.a. the Trane Company project). Other high-visibility issues this year have included the Downs Median Project and DUI Checkpoints. Here are my thoughts on these issues and others. Feel free to disagree -- but please keep in mind that almost all of these issues come back to taxpayers' pocketbooks, including yours!

I and other citizens believe that a TAX INCREASE WILL HURT EVERYONE'S POCKETBOOKS! And Ridgecrest residents who earn lower wages or have several dependents will be disproportionately penalized because the tax increase represents a larger percentage of their income.

For example, young single-income families with small children must purchase more taxable items, such as clothing and healthcare services, than older couples whose children are grown and gone. Is it fair to force this tax burden upon the many young people and budding families who have recently been hired into our community?

Remember, every dollar that is paid for higher taxes is one less dollar that could otherwise have been spent on goods and services. So, instead of stimulating our local economy, this TAX INCREASE WILL HURT LOCAL MERCHANTS."

- Our checkbooks and savings accounts don't differentiate between a "bad Sacramento tax" and a "good Ridgecrest tax": a tax is a tax is a tax.

- At Measure N's $20M over 10 years, it will still take 60 years to fix the so-called $128M problem.

- How much self-help money can we expect? A Councilman told me that the rules have changed and no one really knows.

- An oversight committee is irrelevant.

- Incidentally, not everyone believes that our roads are that bad. A City employee told me that while some streets are obviously in very poor condition, the overall rating of our roads is well above the critical threshold. And two Councilman were overheard agreeing that our roads aren't in as bad shape as other cities.

- Actual cost of a new residential road 7 years ago near CCCC was about $386K per mile. Even after increasing that cost to account for inflation and today's sky-high oil, I'm skeptical that it would cost $5M per mile as shown in the Measure N project list.

- I'd like to see real bids from road repair contractors.

ALTERNATIVES TO RAISING OUR TAXES:

In his recent book, Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul observes that "in order to imagine what it would be like to live in a country with a federal budget 40% lower than the federal budget in 2007, it would be necessary to go all the way back to ... 1997." I'll paraphrase Congressman Paul by observing that to imagine living in Ridgecrest with a General Fund Appropriation 40% lower than today's $13.5M general fund, we'd have to go back as far as ... 2001, when our general fund was only $7.3M. (That's after both of our incumbents were elected.) So, I maintain that it is not impossible to cut actual programs and services by a comparatively modest 5 or 10% (that's half a million or more) and apply it to road repair.

BUDGET:

The solution to the budgetary problems of government at all levels is not to further raise taxes, but to cut spending. That means we'll have to give up some nice-to-haves. Regarding our recently-passed City budget, our City manager said that creative cuts allowed the city to remove some $760,860 worth of demands on the general fund without cutting any actual programs or services. A few people have even expressed a desire to expand recreational facilities (e.g, $4.5M ballfields and $5-7M waterpark)-- but WHO WILL PAY FOR THESE NICE THINGS? Please remember that every $1 million dollar increment represents a $33.00 payment from every man, woman, and child who lives in Ridgecrest (assuming a City population of 30,000 persons).

So is our community willing to tighten its belt and actually cut some programs and services by a modest amount, or do we want all the perks without paying for them ourselves, or better yet, paying for them with grant money from other taxpayers around the state and country? As Frederic Bastiat observed in 1850, "Self-preservation and self-development are common aspirations among all people. But there is also another tendency that is common among people: when they can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others."

By the way, the current Council takes great pride in pointing out that they've achieved a balanced budget every year. That's wonderful -- but what about the City's debt? How much of THAT is being paid off every year?

DUI CHECKPOINTS:
- I strongly support cracking down on irresponsible drivers -- drunk or more likely sober -- who visibly give our officers Probable Cause -- WITHOUT checkpoints -- to pull them over.
- From 2002 to the present there was:

- Only 1 death resulting from a drunk driving accident

- 52 injuries related to drunk driving, mostly to the drunks themselves

- 644 DUI arrests which averages to about 8 each month
- Conclusion: RPD is already doing a great job of going after drunks without checkpoints.

GRANTS:
- I strongly support seeking private grants, not taxpayer grants.
- As Frederic Bastiat observed in 1850, "Self-preservation and self-development are common aspirations among all people. But there is also another tendency that is common among people: when they can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others."

FACILITIES MODERNIZATION (Pending Sole-Source Contract to Trane):
- Since April of this year I have frequently and publicly stated that my primary concern with the City's dealings with The Trane Company was not with Trane itself, but rather that the City's management opted not to obtain even one competing bid from another energy company
- In view of the fact that multiple bids must typically be obtained for federal government purchases exceeding $3K, it is astonishing to me that not one Councilman, City staffer, or committee member voiced any support for obtaining alternative bids for this multi-million-dollar project.
- Unless the City can provide strong justification for awarding a sole-source contract for millions of our tax dollars, I strongly disagree with the incumbent Councilman who stated that "this is the right process for our city".
- The City must obtain approximately $9M of loans to award this project to Trane. At interest rates of around 4% for a 15-year loan, this works out to an annual payment of over $600K -- and that's AFTER deducting the much-publicized annual savings of $180K!
- Where will this $600K come from? The short answer I received from the Council basically boiled down to "We don't know" -- and that was AFTER the Council voted to award a $34K contract for an independent technical review of Trane's facilities modernization design.

DOWNS MEDIAN:
- Because we accepted this city beautification grant, we now have an additional annual cost of about $54K.
- Council's Sept. 17 agenda states that total project cost is 471K. City's share is 11.47% = 54K. The rest was paid by other taxpayers around the state and country (Federal grant).

QUALITY OF LIFE:
- Davy Crockett famously reminded the House of Representatives: "We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money."
- Over in France, Frederic Bastiat observed, Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should be just; it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation.
- Here in Ridgecrest, I have recently witnessed our leaders voting to give taxpayer money to private organizations.
- California Article 1, Section 7(b): "A citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens."