lest we forget

 Lest we forget. Up until 1978, property taxes in California were completely out of control, rising to levels that forced some residents on low or fixed incomes out of their homes. Politicians seem to know no bounds when it comes to spending your tax money. That has not changed to date, and Oxnard’s politicians are no different. When they run out of your taxes to squander, they simply raise the tax level.

In 1978 California voters, not the politicians, passed Proposition 13. Its passage did three things. First, it rolled back property assessment values to 1976 levels. Second, it limited assessment to increase only 2% per year. And third, it fixed real property tax increases to 1% per year.

Well, taking your tax money away from a politician is like trying to snatch a pork chop from a hungry lion. 

 

        
           So in 1982, the State Legislature passed the Community Facilities Act, known as “Mello-Roos”. It was specifically designed to circumvent the tax restrictions of Prop 13, make no mistake about that. Politicians couldn’t upend Prop 13 without going to the voters. However, Prop 13 only applies to one’s real property: the home sitting on the land, not the land itself. An out the politicians quickly exploited via the CFA/Mello-Roos, and a pretty sneaky end run.

Voting for the CFA gives politicians unlimited access to your tax dollars, make no mistake about that either. If their intention really was to increase funds for the Landscape Maintenance Districts (LMDs), there is a simple and legal procedure for the city to follow. Due to mismanagement, the city of Oxnard is in desperate need of money and this CFA measure will soon be on your ballet.

What Oxnard’s citizens need to realize is that not all “grifters” are in Washington DC.

separating the wheat from the chaff