Exploding the myth of the Town's fiscal crisis

By Lujza Mehling

The Town is in crisis, but it is not a fiscal one as the Town would like us to believe. We have a management crisis.

The Town is in crisis, but it is not a fiscal one, as the Town would like us to believe. We have a management crisis. The present council is unwilling to take the many tough decisions needed to force the Town and its employees to live within their means. Benefits need to be controlled, and positions need to be cut or frozen because continually rising benefits and salaries are choking the budget.

I oppose measure B, the Town of San Anselmo's proposed property tax, because it is dishonest and unnecessary, and based on unsustainable costs. It has no sunset date and it does not address the serious issue of what will happen after four years. Eight-five percent of the Town's budget is consumed by salaries and benefits.

To make matters worse, the proponents of the tax are telling conflicting stories about what the money will be spent on. Story no. 1: the tax is for maintaining "basic services;" story no. 2: the tax is for eight new positions; story no. 3: the tax will build up the depleted reserves; story no. 4: the tax is for employee raises and benefits. story no. 5: the tax is to keep the library open. Which story, if any, is correct? If any is correct, taxpayers will face a continuation of this tax in four years!

The Town does not need this tax because it has adequate reserves and assets to meet its budget + proving the Town has no current financial crisis. For details, see the Town's budget at http://www.townofsananselmo.org.

If this tax passes, it will put an additional lien on the properties of San Anselmo property-owners, whose taxes are already higher than most Marin taxpayers because we pay BOTH the employee and employer halves of employee pensions. Town employees have consistently refused to contribute a CENT to their own generous retirement funds.

The proposed tax is unwarranted because the Town has not explored any means of SAVING money, refused to consolidate services with the County of Marin and/or other towns, and failed to sell very valuable assets such as the 11.4-acre parcel at the end of Idlewood Drive.

At the same time that the current Town Council did not explore any means of SAVING money, it did a tremendous job of INCREASING fees for just about every town service.

The substantial revenues from these fee increases were completed ignored by the Fiscal Advisory Committee (FAC) members who recommended the tax. The FAC report does not EVEN mention these revenues!

After our economy declined, and the State began to fail to meet its scheduled revenue support, San Anselmo Town Council still provided annual employee salary increases, costly pension entitlements and generous benefit packages for all police, staff and management positions. In a financial climate where many companies cut jobs, salaries, benefits and pensions, the Town increased employee benefits from 13.7% ($1,178,941) in 2002-03 to 21.6% ($2,135,594) in 2004-05.

A recent Grand Jury report on "bloated retirement plans of Marin County, its cities and towns" found that these entities provide pensions that are many times more generous than similar ones in the private sector.