Stop the Theft of Ratepayer Funds

Tom Stout, Long Beach Taxpayers Association

The “Woe is Me Tour” begins with Long Beach City Management.

The city has been stealing utility funds for over 60 years by their own admission. The Water Department lawsuit is not the cause of the budget deficit; it is the $154 million pension costs that they never talk about. It’s the raises that followed the passage of Measure A that added millions to the pension costs.

The police and fire unions donated $350,000 to help buy passage of the Measure A sales tax increase and they now have donated another $100,000 to pass Measure M.

By law, Long Beach city utilities should not be charging ratepayers more than it costs to operate the utility. The $20-plus million a year the utilities have been transferring to the city’s general fund was and is illegal and it should have been stopped by the lawsuit.

All sources of city income are up dramatically and it is still not enough to provide basic city services. They raised all fees mid-year; that means your fees have gone up twice this year. Oil is budgeted at $45 a barrel, it is now selling for $70 a barrel; that means millions more for the general fund and it's still not enough!

Whenever the City of Long Beach wants more money from residents they say the new tax or fee is for more police, firefighters, the parks and to repair our crumbling infrastructure; how many times can the city cry “wolf” and not provide what they promised?

Residents need to wise up. The City of Long Beach is run by and for the benefit of city employees, not the residents.

Vote no one Measure M on June 5. Stop the theft of ratepayers funds.

 

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