Huntington Beach Qualifies Anti-Pension Bill For November
THIS JUST IN...
Just a moment ago the following email came in over the transom from Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen. Looks like "pensions" are going to be all over the ballot in November.
***
But for right now, for tonight, let's take a moment to celebrate. Tax relief is coming to Huntington Beach!
Just a moment ago the following email came in over the transom from Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen. Looks like "pensions" are going to be all over the ballot in November.***
Friends-
I've got some great news.
Tax relief is on its way to Huntington Beach.
Just a few hours ago, our City Clerk informed me that our Initiative to eliminate the Huntington Beach Pension Property Tax has qualified for the November ballot.
For months now, we've been out on the streets collecting signatures to try to take this Measure to the voters.
The support from
our community was overwhelming. By the time we turned in the petitions,
we had over 150% of the requirement to reach the November Ballot. The
Orange County Registrar's office didn't even need to count all the way
through our signatures to verify that we had more than enough.
Voters were more than happy to sign up to get the chance to remove this tax.
This is great news for our City and its taxpayers.
Voters will now decide whether homeowners should continue to be unfairly asked to pick up the tab for lavish union pensions.
But now the difficult part begins.
We are going to have to campaign hard throughout the Summer and Fall to ensure that this measure passes.
The
Special Interests that have been enjoying the benefits of this tax
aren't going to go quietly into the night. They are going to fight this
every step of the way.
But we have got the voters and what is right on our side, and that should be enough when all is said and done.
You will be hearing more from me in the coming weeks and months about this campaign.
But for right now, for tonight, let's take a moment to celebrate. Tax relief is coming to Huntington Beach!
Thanks again for your support!
Don Hansen
Mayor
City of Huntington Beach
Labels: Don Hansen, Huntington Beach, Pension Reform
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 6/26/2012 05:41:00 PM
8 Comments:
More neat stuff they can do for residents as a Charter City. Are you listening Costa Mesa?
The disrespect he shows to his city employees in this press release is astounding. Public employees are not the enemy. If Mayor Hansen forfeits all compensation offered to him, I might listen. But why would anyone want to negotiate with him based upon his apparent disdain for those who work in his city?
Wow. The likes of Harold the bleeding heart liberal are going to have to face voter outrage in November. All their fear based tactics will fall on deaf ears as they try and brand Costa Mesa as a troubled City.
No one will buy what they are selling.
I hope the public safety unions back this guy. They are unlikely to find Krupp for fear of going on a man retreat and being handed a wooden symbol.
We hope others will run. Come on in, the water OS warm.
Reality is the force in Costa Mesa has developed a ground game that helped Mansoor. Great foundation for the guys and hopefully the good women.
Thank you HB for showing the Haters here they are facing a mighty head wind.
So you do away with a tax but do nothing to address pension costs? how does that solve anything? It seems like it will only create a budget crisis.Another shortsighted ignorant OCGOP move, I guess Costa Mesa isn't the only city with inept councilmen.
I wonder how many of the people that want this on the ballot were informed that eliminating this source of revenue will do nothing to reduce the pension cost that the city is legally obligated to pay. Charter city or not, HB and every other city (yes that includes CM) has to pay for the pensions that are in place. They can work with their employees to pay the legal limit of their share and they can change the pension plan for future employees but defunding the ones that already exist will simply take revenues from somewhere else or force cuts to their existing work force.
If this passes in november (I don't doubt it will) I think the first thing we'll see happen is adios HB1.
Maybe if CM runs Righiemer's wrecking crew out of town, HB can be the most disfunctional city in OC.
So Hansen wants to eliminate this tax but supports tolls on the 405 freeway?
Hansen will be termed out so the next City Council will need to deal with the revenue shortfall that this tax cut would make for the City budget.
All Hansen is doing is lining up support for his campaign to replace when Moorlach is termed out.
What a nasty little man.
Umm Barry, Costa Mesa does not have this tax so your comment is irrelevant. Charter or not, Huntington Beach will still have to pay for the pensions and if this measure passes then that cost will come out of some other service to the residents.
We bought a townhouse in HB back in 1995. It's currently assessed at $12.71 for the HB "pension tax". The tax rate is .00015%, so the "tax savings" per property owner is ridiculously low even if you own a million dollar McMansion. The average recent HB homeowner would probably save roughly b/w $75-$90 a year, or a meager $6-8 per month.
Also, several years ago, the City offered all HB homeowners the option to continue to keep paying the pension tax, or to opt out. I'm sure some frugal homeowners we're excited about not paying this tax, and they opted out. We decided to keep paying it b/c it was a such miniscule amount in comparison to losing any vital city services (due to the City's obligation to it's payment portion of Employee pensions). BTW, we gladly pay the optional "Fire Med" program fee (i.e. $60 per year) to access HBFD medic services as well. Both these minimal local taxes and fees indirectly contribute to creating the Surf City Brand (i.e. a safe, beautiful world-class destination where you live, work, and play) which their dedicated City Employees promote on a daily basis).
Obliviously, the Mayor is campaigning to the older, "fixed-income" taxpayer crowd. Which is kind of funny b/c they most likely bought their homes years ago, under Prop 13, or prior to the most recent record RE bubble prices. And their assessed property values are like mine, extremely low! Well, I guess "it's just the principle of the matter" to some... And no, I'm not a City of HB employee. Actually, I'm a proud City of CM employee!
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