Blog: A Time for Truth About the UUT

As a candidate for City Council I am walking the streets of this city, getting to know its residents better, and learning about what they want from their government. One of the issues in this year’s campaign is whether or not we should support Measures 12-1 and 12-2 on the ballot this April. This is a very important decision that will have repercussions for years to come.

The City is facing daunting fiscal challenges because of the loss of CRA funds, the rising cost of living, especially rising energy costs, and due to the costs of the recent windstorm. After a very thorough and exhaustive review of the City budget I have concluded that the extension of our existing Utility User Tax is a prudent and necessary action which will enable our City Council to plan for the provision of essential public services for Sierra Madre for the coming years. Therefore I support Measures 12-1 and 12-2.

The UUT is a vital component of the City’s revenue stream. The voters supported the current UUT rates in 2008 by nearly a 2-1 margin. It is the only tax we pay that stays here in Sierra Madre. We get very little of the parcel tax, and have very little sales tax revenue. Other cities, like Monrovia, have extensive retail and industrial areas that produce large amounts of sales tax revenue. Sierra Madre has a very small business district by comparison, so our City is far more reliant on the UUT.

We should extend the UUT now because planning for the police, fire and paramedics programs and for other essential City services is generally not something that can be done well in the short term. The budgets are on a two-year cycle but they fall within and follow prudent ongoing planning processes that the citizens expect from their government. For example, when the City hires a police officer, the expectation is that he/she will grow on the job through experience and training and by becoming familiar with our town and will be policing this community for years to come. The City must have a firm idea of what revenue we will have to be able to make those kinds of expenditure decisions. To allow the current UUT rates to sunset at a time of fiscal uncertainty seems to me to be a very risky gamble that would make prudent, long-term planning problematic.

If we allow the UUT to sunset we would be sending the wrong signal to bond rating firms and bond markets, who are looking for certainty and predictability, and it could have a negative consequence on our credit rating. Bond holders want to make sure that we will repay our bond obligations.

It is never politically expedient to take a stand in support of extending a tax of any kind. My instinct is fiscal conservatism. My dad taught me years ago that everything has a cost. I believe we should get the services we are willing to pay for.

Some of my opponents seem to believe that being opposed to the extension of this tax somehow makes them the taxpayers’ heroes at election time. What they are not saying is exactly what services and programs they would cut should the UUT sunset and not be extended. I have read their public statements and they have not spelled out a single program cut for the voters to evaluate. What I gather is that they will let the UUT rates sunset in 2014 and then... they have nothing to say.

Well, they are running for seats with four-year terms. They should be telling you what to expect for four years, but they are not.  This is the kind of politics we have seen at the national level for years, where politicians are for maintaining popular programs but will not support the taxes necessary to pay for them.

The main reason I am running for City Council is to preserve and protect what we have. I am running on the proposition, confirmed through weeks of conversations with our residents as I go door to door throughout this city that, the current level of city services is appropriate, and is part of what makes Sierra Madre so special. Nobody I talk to wants to see our police and fire departments diminished, our Paramedic service discontinued, our streets fall into disrepair, our parks turn into weed patches, our seniors services eliminated or have our library shut down.

Extending the UUT is not a magic pill. We will still have to manage the City’s revenues very carefully to meet the needs of our people. I will be presenting my ideas for cost savings in City government in other statements to follow. However, I am convinced that extending the UUT is necessary at this time and I believe that the voters, after doing their homework, will support Measures 12-1 and 12-2.

I look forward to a civil and spirited debate on this and other issues and I welcome your comments.