August 14, 2007

TAX ON TAXES...

They're at it again folks, the Gang in the Ivory Tower (Ventura City Hall) just hired the most expensive employee in the history of the city, the new City Attorney will be paid, including benefits, somewhere around a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000) per year. Not to be outdone the City Manager, (Rick "King" Cole) has upped his share of our tax money by getting a 6% raise and a raise in the amount the city puts into his retirement by $6,000.00 per year and he ain't done yet. His ego won't let the City Attorney make more money that he does so he will figure out a way to squeeze out a few thousand dollars more from the City Council. While they were at it they also handed out mass raises to almost every employee in the city, some, (the honchos) even got raises in the double digits. They are also in the process of beautifying a bunch of the offices in the Ivory Tower for a cost of somewhere around $500,000.00, of course that's the same amount they gave to the Downtown Beautification Group to hire themselves an out-of-town, (from Arizona), manager. It's also the same amount they spent beautifying the employee gym/locker room below the city hall at the request of the prior city manager Ms Donna (Bat-Lady) Landeros just before she flew the coop.

Not to mention the few hundred thousand dollars they are going to toss at the rotting, rusting, twisted mass of pipes they call the "Bus/Home Bus Stop" they say they are going to up-grade it, and even add some shelter roofs so the people waiting for the bus can get out of the rain. Then on top of all that they are still going spend $700,000.00 of our tax money to put their idea of art over at the sewer ponds. Oh yeah, remember that $80,000.00 they spent on placing the "Spitting Whale" on the end of the Ventura Pier? It's rotting away in a junk yard at this time.

Another item that almost got hidden away is the fact that they are spending our tax money to support the Hillside Conservancy Group, the same group that prevented the Lloyd family from placing the finest development project ever in the history of Ventura in the hillsides above town, a project that would have increased the tax base for Ventura by hundreds of thousands of dollars, added hundreds of jobs over a ten or fifteen year period, and given the city a 3000 acre public park with a trust fund for maintenance that would have lasted forever. Even though a majority of the citizens have nothing to do with the Hillsides Conservancy the Gang in the Ivory Tower feels they can still use our collective tax money to support them, this is obviously a "Gift of Tax Money."

Now of course they are placing on the November ballot a measure called C7, they want everyone to believe it's a measure to reduce the amount of money they collect on what is called the "Utilities User Tax", check out your gas bill, electric bill, phone bill, you will see it listed on each of them. What it is in reality is a "Tax on Taxes". What the council is doing to us, ala George Bush, is sliding around behind our backs to pick more tax money out of our slim pockets. They have hired a "Hit Man", a so called lawyer that is a specialist at convincing the gullible public that the council is only looking out for their own interests. The way they are looking out for your interest is by reducing the 5% Utilities User Tax to 4.5% and then adding a mirid of other items to the list thereby actually making us pay more per month than we already are.

So all I am asking the citizens of Ventura is to carefully examine the C7 measure and you will find out that it is not what the Gang in the Ivory Tower wants you to believe it is. I believe you will realize the only smart thing to do is...... VOTE NO ON C7! While your at it you can also examine the track record of the incumbents that are asking you to re-elect them, I believe here too you will find that the only smart thing to do is VOTE NO ON ALL INCUMBENTS!

VOTE NO ON C7....VOTE NO ON INCUMBENTS

Rellis Smith

res@venturastuff.com