Ms. Joey Magid wrote that the Taxpayers’ Right to Know and Vote initiative is the same as a “minority” taking over management of the city of Signal Hill [Letters to the Editor, Sept. 7, 2012]. She believes that the city is like the state legislature and its two-thirds requirement to pass taxes. It leads to the whole state being held hostage by a minority.
She is forgetting that political party politics is at work at the state level. At the city level, there is no party politics. All decisions are nonpartisan. There is no minority.
There is no minority party leader pushing other party members around to oppose anything the majority party proposes. Signal Hill voters are free to make their own decision.
Getting a two-thirds vote for city measures is do-able. In a study of 2,500 city measures, 1986 to 2002, Public Policy Institute of California researchers found that 42 percent with the two-thirds requirement were approved. They also found that the passage rate is linked to whether the voter thinks the cost is worth the service that will be funded with the new revenue.
Bottom-line— if it’s worth it, we approve it.
Another fact that is important to understand: State law governs Know and Vote. Magid overlooks this in her claim that the police chief will have to go to a vote for a simple fee like one for a firearm-sales permit.
State law exempts that type of fee. And so does Know and Vote.
Maria Harris
Member
Signal Hill Community First
