This month, the City of Santa Barbara will take bids from several polling companies to ask residents if they support increasing the sales tax by a half-cent. The poll would “ask voters what they think,” said Mayor Helene Schneider. With 35,000 local Viewers, let’s save the City the cost of hiring a polling company with the Question of the Week:
Some of the unfunded projects that the tax would pay for include: $216 million in street maintenance; rebuilding Fire Station 7 for $5 million to $7 million; building a new police station for $54.5 million; renovating the Cabrillo Bathhouse for $10 million; renovating the Ortega Pool for $6.2 million; and installing an elevator in City Hall for $1.2 million. The tax-increase measure could appear on the November 2014 ballot.
Nope… Don’t even bother
How much do polling businesses charge?
Before they can install an elevator in city hall they need to deal with their unreinforced masonry problems. That project would become a sink hole, so take that one off the list and find alternative solutions.
We do need a better police station and instead of wasting so much money on pet projects and union payoffs, they should have been saving this money in a capital improvement trust account long ago.
You have city workers with lavish pay and benefits who only have to work 80% of the time. There is money to skim off and set up a police department construction fund. ASAP.
City badly needs to pay attention to its infrastructure from its general funds and get out of its addiction to spend it all on city staff salaries, perks and benefits while waiting for outside grants to take care of the real needs of the city.
Allocate the money that is already being collected in a more responsible way. No amount of money collected will ever be enough. We are taped out.
CITY REVENUES SPENDING PLAN:
70% of revenues go to personnel – full time, part time, consultants etc – all people paychecks no matter what title or duties. All negotiations must work within this amount, and no more.
30% goes to capital maintenance, fixed operating and construction.
When revenues go down, all city personnel contracts are written to become sliding scale contracts and they go down proportionately too so they do not exceed 70%. And they go up as well, if the total does not exceed the fixed 70%.
Any time this has to be adjusted due to an emergency, one time adjustments may be made only after a recorded 2/3 vote that includes a plan to restore any funds “borrowed” from either side of the 70/30 split.
Absolutely no new tax…doesn’t take a paid consultant to figure that out; just have each council member randomly call 20 residents and publish the results.
Salary and benefit “negotiations’ seem to always be about how much do they get, not what can the taxpayers afford? There was a time when public servants worked for lower salaries because of generous benefits…now they receive competing or even higher salaries AND benefits generally unheard of in the private sector. We need to begin requiring a larger percentage of retirement matching, and a higher age of retirement because the current equation is simply not tenable. Besides, when was a day off in Santa Barbara, either paid or unpaid, a ‘hardship?’ The city has some terrific staff, but it’s getting very top heavy and way too costly.
City or schools when demanding we pay more taxes always put out a list what they will cut if we don’t give them the money. How about if they ask us instead what we want to cut? Otherwise, it is a just a lame dance of extortion and blackmail.
The feeling pretty much right now is cut employee salaries and benefits. And expect them to put in a full years work for their annual salary, instead of paying 100% for the 80% work days they get now.
Cut the amount of paid time off would be the first place to start. And cut the complaints about “poor morale” as a close second.
The workers should have to work on legal and national holidays. We should tighten the screws on their lives so they are miserable. That will fix government!!!
Kudos for SB View for conducting this poll to determine what the public wants instead of wasting money in some stupid consulting form getting paid by our tax dollars to do it.
Does that really say $6.2 Million for the renovation of a pool???? Just wondering where this list of needs was when the City Council was deciding instead to hand out public money to fund so many no-income housing projects and enticing the homeless to become local residents. Remember these misplaced priorities this fall when the Mayor, Bendy White and assorted friends of theirs tell you how much they love this city and will be honored by your vote. It’s not about them, it’s about the ruination SB in their hands.
Instead of a 6 mil pool how about 12 highly paid cops getting the homeless off of state.
“Elevator in City hall”?, it’s only three floors.
Cut the fat, there will be plenty of money.
True, because those people in wheelchairs should not be going to a city council meeting anyway.
ADA compliance is necessary, but be honest about the full costs once you open up this old building.
Looks pretty unanimous/ No survey need/ thanks