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Proposition 13 Reform Support Not Considered by Council

By 1 commentEconomic Development, Fiscal Responsibility, Uncategorized

Proposition 13 was designed to help retired homeowners on a fixed income whose property taxes were rapidly rising. It limited the amount one’s property tax can increase annually even if their property values go way up. This was a laudable effort.

However, the rules of Proposition 13 apply to commercial and residential property. Of course, applying Proposition 13 to commercial properties does nothing to help homeowners. It’s estimated that this costs California nine billion dollars a year!

California used to be one of the leaders in how much we contributed to our public schools. Now we’re near the bottom of the list. Many have attributed this to Proposition 13. That’s why many school districts including Fremont’s, Hayward’s and Alameda County’s have signed on to a petition developed by Evolve to reform Proposition 13. A number of local cities and over 900 elected officials have signed on to this.

I made a referral to have the Fremont City Council sign on as well. Staff analyzed this and suggested that we simply monitor the situation. Despite this, I made a motion that the Fremont City Council sign on as well. My motion failed for a lack of a second.

Read more about the petition at http://evolve-ca.org.

We Need A More Inclusive Budget Process in Fremont

By Fiscal Responsibility

The budget is actually discussed in three separate Council meetings (5/17, 6/14 and 6/21). In the 5/17 meeting I made it a point to note that Fremont’s budget decision process is not an inclusive process. The budget notes that there is a hierarchy where the community is on top, followed by the Council and then by staff. I noted that in my experience this is not actually how the budget is prepared in Fremont.

My frustration with the budget process has not only been that there is virtually no input from the public. I also feel as a Council member that I have little say in the budget process. That the budget is simply presented by staff, there is little discussion, and then the budget is approved. As an example, there was a budget surplus last year. Instead of staff presenting to Council what options we had to spend this on, staff just presented a list of what they felt it should be spent on. This was simply approved by the Council with little discussion. I’ve complained about this a couple of times with no success.
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Fremont’s Human Relations Commission at Pride Parade in SF

By Culture - Arts

prideThanks to Congressman Eric Swalwell for joining Fremont’s contingent in the SF Pride parade yesterday. We had quite a good turnout once again.

Thanks also to Fremont’s very fine Human Relations Commission and Human Services Department for organizing this. We go above and beyond what most cities do in this regard.

Watching the TV re-broadcast of the parade last night the commentators had some very nice things to say about Fremont, noting that this is our fifth straight year of participating. I’m very proud to be part of a city that says loud and clear that bigotry and homophobia are NOT welcome in our city.

Superintendent Morris Joins Protest at Patterson Ranch

By Development, Schools

 

pattersonHow many school superintendents would come out on a Saturday to speak out against a development that isn’t paying it’s fair share of school fees? I don’t know, but Fremont’s Superintendent did.

I heard that after the recent increase in impact fees adopted by the School Board, the Patterson Ranch developers rushed to the City to get their final building permits to avoid paying these new fees.

Patterson Ranch was the issue that got me involved in Fremont politics over 10 years ago. The impact of this development and others on our schools, roads, etc. is only getting worse.

Proposition 13 Reform Support Not Considered by Council (6/21)

By Uncategorized

Proposition 13 was designed to help retired homeowners on a fixed income whose property taxes were rapidly rising. It limited the amount one’s property tax can increase annually even if their property values go way up. This was a laudable effort.

However, the rules of Proposition 13 apply to commercial and residential property. Of course, applying Proposition 13 to commercial properties does nothing to help homeowners. It’s estimated that this costs California nine billion dollars a year! (more…)