Local agencies tired of state bullying

The lines between local tax dollars and state tax revenues will be much, much brighter if voters support a proposed ballot measure being reviewed by the state Attorney General's Office.

"They should not have the tools to borrow or steal local tax revenues," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, one of three sponsors of the Local Taxpayer, Public Safety and Transportation Protection Act.

McKenzie said all 350 city members voted to push the ballot measure forward.

The other sponsors are the California Coalition for Jobs, a labor group primarily focused on transportation construction and maintenance issues, and the California Transit Agency.

If the ballot measure passes through the state review for form and gets the requisite signatures to qualify, it would appear on the November 2010 ballot.

The act essentially protects local property tax and other revenues first defined in 2004 with Proposition 1A, but removes the clause that allows the state to borrow those funds in times of emergency.

It also adds protection to several transportation and transit funding sources.

"We have no confidence that they will pay it back," said McKenzie, adding that the state has exploited loopholes in the laws to go after the funds, even though its financial condition made it all but impossible to repay the cities and counties.

Colusa Councilwoman Kay Hosmer, a member of the executive committee for the Northern California division of the cities association, said the state's management of its own budget has created the need for the ballot measure.

"We have to do something. They (state officials) have pushed us so far in debt ... that we are not going to be able to pay for anything," Hosmer sad.

She is particularly concerned what will happen to public safety departments like police and fire, but said it goes well beyond that.

"I'm starting to feel like the child on the schoolyard who the bully threatens if he doesn't give up his lunch money," added Williams Mayor Pat Ash, who was at the league convention when the ballot measure was discussed.

"Personally, I'm getting tired of bigger governments picking on little governments," Ash said. "We are on the bottom of the food chain. It's not right. ... I support it."

Colusa County Supervisor Denise Carter said the county is getting hit from two sides.

First there are the unfunded mandates from the state, which forces the county to pay for programs with its own revenues. Second are the funds lost to help the state balance its budget.

Carter said the county has been fortunate in that it has not had to cut public safety programs too deeply, but that is only a matter of time if the state does not gain control of its fiscal management.

"The piece of discretionary funds is getting smaller and smaller," Carter said.

The state withheld more than $660,000 of the county's general fund property tax, and $1.1 million if all the special districts are included. Another $856,000 in Williamson Act funds were absorbed, which could come in play with this ballot measure because Colusa County puts those dollars in the general fund, and therefore at least some of the dollars are used for public safety and other critical services the ballot measure addresses.

Colusa's share of property tax and vehicle license fees will be about $100,000, the city reported.

Williams share of the state grab is $94,000, the city reported.

Williams has already approved a resolution that will put it in a statewide bond program to get that money back — half in January, the other half in May. Colusa is expected to take up the resolution at its next council meeting.

The county also has adopted the resolution. Some special districts are moving in that direction. Others are waiting.

The program is through the League of Cities and a counties association, with the provision that the state pays back the bond investors.