Today I contacted my local city council regarding my disgust with some uses of funds/taxpayer’s property tax dollars. This was the first time I have ever done something like this. To those of you who contact political leaders often, what do you feel is the most effective way to make yourself ‘heard’? I know KJH is rather active in this area, so I’m interested to hear some of his war stories.
Tell them you’re starting a “taxpayer association” blog. It scares local governments. Here’s the one for my hood: http://encinitastaxpayers.org/ My favorite antic was calling up my congresswoman and leaving a voicemail, “I’m disgusted at the bailouts of banks. Since you’re giving them all my tax money anyway… I’m no longer paying them my mortgage. I feel like a fool paying it anyway since no one else is on my block!”
Now I feel a bit better. There already is a city online forum for this particular issue. In addition, I sent the email from the CPA email address leveraging, “Rest assured, I will encourage all the firm’s clients from the city of xxxx to sign the petition and contact you as I have.” I hope that will count for something. Somehow the local law enforcement have the means to circumnavigate the usual bond referendum vote and build a new facility 8x the original size totaling $7-10 million for a town with a pop less than 10k. It just kills me, I do not know how many homeowners are in my city, but $7 million divided by a population of 10k is an awful lot per citizen.
Yah… developers get their hooks into the local councilmen and lobby for gratuitous silly spending.
I’ve sent letters to state and city officials in my hometown. The most effective way to make yourself heard, I think, is to find their private gov. email address…usually somewhere on the municipality website. I’ve had a back and forth with a few of them actually regarding funding for a certain local professional sports team. Turns out I’ve completely changed my opinion on the subject since then.
Well, I’m off to a city council meeting tonight and may opt to speak. KJH, have you had the (dis)pleasure of attending a council meeting? Have you ever voiced your opinion regarding a bill you disagree with?
dedalus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve sent letters to state and city officials in > my hometown. The most effective way to make > yourself heard, I think, is to find their private > gov. email address…usually somewhere on the > municipality website. I’ve had a back and forth > with a few of them actually regarding funding for > a certain local professional sports team. Turns > out I’ve completely changed my opinion on the > subject since then. let’s here this… sounds interesting
ditchdigger2CFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I know KJH is rather active in this area, so I’m > interested to hear some of his war stories. So you are or are not KJH?
I sent an angry (but professional) email to the city with some opinions demonstrating why this is a bad idea. One of the council members wrote me back agreeing with me and I never heard from the rest of the council. Tonight a large group of us all opposed to this project are going to the city council meeting for a forum discussion.
Let us know how it goes. Spending 7MM on a new police station for that many people in this economy sounds plan ludicrous to me. Spending money is probably a good idea, but spread the wealth a bit on things you actually need.
Well, I got up there with a short and sweet two minute presentation of who I was and did my simple math demonstrating what this police station will cost per citizen of my town. I got a lot of compliments after the meeting since many of the other concerned citizens were contractors, real estate professionals, etc. Bringing the per citizen cost to life really stirred some grumbling by the city council as well. The city is projecting 1000 new homes in the next few years. I think this projection was pulled out of thin air since only 15 new homes were built in 2008. Every citizen (not taxpayer) will need to pony up $1600 for this new police station. While the city will amortize and defer the payments over so many years, $1600 is a real kick in the teeth for a city like ours where police spend most of their time issue traffic tickets (per police station records). About 5 years ago there was a first degree murder in my city, and that was unheard of. I have yet to see a reliable evidence that we need to grow our police station by 8x. The city’s argument is ‘now is a good time to build’ since real estate pricing is down. Quotes like this scare me since we know how accurate city officials are at picking the bottom. I’m starting to get more interested in politics after the bailout bill and now this issue in my hometown.
ditchdigger2CFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well, I got up there with a short and sweet two > minute presentation of who I was and did my simple > math demonstrating what this police station will > cost per citizen of my town. > > I got a lot of compliments after the meeting since > many of the other concerned citizens were > contractors, real estate professionals, etc. > Bringing the per citizen cost to life really > stirred some grumbling by the city council as > well. > > The city is projecting 1000 new homes in the next > few years. I think this projection was pulled out > of thin air since only 15 new homes were built in > 2008. > > Every citizen (not taxpayer) will need to pony up > $1600 for this new police station. While the city > will amortize and defer the payments over so many > years, $1600 is a real kick in the teeth for a > city like ours where police spend most of their > time issue traffic tickets (per police station > records). About 5 years ago there was a first > degree murder in my city, and that was unheard of. > I have yet to see a reliable evidence that we > need to grow our police station by 8x. > > The city’s argument is ‘now is a good time to > build’ since real estate pricing is down. Quotes > like this scare me since we know how accurate city > officials are at picking the bottom. > > I’m starting to get more interested in politics > after the bailout bill and now this issue in my > hometown. is their reasoning that growing the police facilities and paying for additional police will bring more police to the area to buy homes… or that more police will bring more non-police to the area? paying people to work there to support house prices would be a hilarious conclusion. (not hilarious for you, but a joke in terms the stupidity of municipal decision making)
I just read an article about how our local council could pay 2 cops $50k per year each or 1 cop $100k per year. They feel that it is in the best interest of the town to have the cops LIVE in the town. Since you can’t afford to live on $50k (even tho’ cops will work for $50k) they pay a cop $100k to live in town. It is silly. It’s amazing our society even functions but it does! Then again, our little town just spent $20 million on a decadent ocean view library.
I wish I knew the true motive since this bond referendum was kept quiet until some angry citizens used their own time and money to bring it to light. Not to gloat, but I live in a richer part of town (I’m not rich) where there is tons of old money on the lake in the area. I live several miles from the lake and enjoy it when I can in the summer. Due to the state of the economy, these lake homes are taking a huge it in valuation since there is so much luxury which was a large price factor back in the bubble. Tacking on a larger property tax or assessment will only exploit this issue further and cause more people to leave the city. An appraiser I spoke to last night said I’d be shocked to see some fire sales that he witnessed. I can’t help but wonder if some back scratching is going on with the contractor secured and the city officials. Also, this is not a bond up for vote, it is under total discretion of the city board and they are not taking comments/criticism kindly. Since there is lots of old money out here, there are plenty of wealthy people who get it and are taking a proactive stance to suggest quantified cost effective alternative plans. So far no results. I really don’t get it, and I consider myself a competent person. Perhaps I need to revisit a government policy and procedure textbook.
KJH, I did forward that site to some of the more active citizens who created an online forum about this issue. I suggested we keep the created website and operate it much like the one for your hood. Regardless of the outcome, it is reasonably foreseeable that these council members will all be replaced in the next election.
Yahoo “groups” is a cool, privacy-controlled way to network about stuff like this. It’s just as good, if not better, than a blog.
We’ve just been robbed. Despite all the protesting, letter writing, and council meetings we/I(city citizens) participated in, the vote went through. When you count principal, interest and down payment, the total price tag is $9,565,522, not counting land costs still payable to the Park Fund. Our puny city is has the 6th highest property rates in the state. Lousy gubmint! In the email I received, we have some ringers to rob the city council board members of their spots. Election is next June, and may the Lord have mercy on the current council members when they are all inevitably replaced and run out of town/state!