No on Measure M
Your [Long Beach] mayor and city council should be ashamed for not telling you:
• A brave taxpayer filed a lawsuit to stop them from illegally raiding the water and sewer utilities and required them to return millions of dollars.
• The City is spending over one-half million of taxes on this measure so they can re-raid those utilities and the gas utility.
• They squandered all the increased property taxes, sales taxes and oil taxes. We still don’t have enough police and fire services. Many sidewalks and streets remain unfixed.
• Instead, they spent your money raising bloated salaries and pensions and paying for extravagant and unnecessary projects. Now they want you to give them more because they don’t know how to manage money.
Wait. There’s more:
• This Measure (M) lets the City increase your water, sewer and gas rates to pay for the massive 12-percent transfers.
• A 12-percent transfer is the highest percentage transfer by any city on its utilities. This means utility users pay a huge new tax, which property owners pass along to renters. Thanks to higher utility rates, you will also pay more “utility user” taxes which is a “tax on a tax.”
• California is currently considering a tax on your drinking water.
• The City collected $600,000 in new “first-responder fees” plus hundreds of thousands more for 9-1-1 emergency services.
• The City is expecting millions of dollars in new marijuana taxes.
Vote no. Stop the mayor and city council from their reckless spending and mismanagement of your money.
Diana Lejins
Gerrie Schipske
Tom Stout
Joe Weinstein
Love for The Lover
Thank you, Anita, for the insightful review and for the Signal Tribune’s support of the arts in Long Beach/Signal Hill! [Theatre review: The Lover at the Found Theatre, May 11, 2018]
Virginia DeMoss
The Found Theatre