Tag: taxes

City of Ontario Tax Increase 2020

It seems that due to my frequent voting, I am one of the first to find out if local agencies want to raise taxes. I am here to sound the alarm that my city of Ontario wants to raise the sales tax another half cent. The irony is we are blessed with industry and we are not exactly built out like our neighboring cities that may have a pressing need for the tax increase.

I understand the city wants to improve features such as our library system but is the issue of improving the library system seems to be a sweetener to increase our sales tax rate in perception. Taxpayers have been abused statewide where it leads to skepticism to trust the elected leaders from our state leaders down to our city council that new tax revenues will be spent responsibly before they come knocking for more money.

We Deserve Fiscal Accountability In Local Government

We deserve fiscal accountability with our local governments.  From the boards of education to city halls in our state there should be accountability when it comes when they ask for more money from the voters. These agencies may want money from the taxpayers, but have these agencies handled money effectively?

I am thinking if a school district is asking for a new bond above a designated amount of money while still paying on previous bonds above a figure of 500 million still owed, the district would need to be audited in its operations. Is the district masking its fiscal inefficiencies by borrowing more money as seen in Santa Ana Unified? Is there really an unmet need for these funds to be utilized in a new bond? A neutral party would be helpful for this accountability. The Proposition 39 bond advisory group does not really have much power after a bond is passed how school districts help plead voters to approve the bonds, but the goal is to provide the voters and the municipalities information before a bond is passed.

City halls would also be audited if they wanted to be bailed out by a sales tax increase or an implementation of an utility tax. If they want to increase their sales tax by a half cent or more, they would also have a forensic audit as well. We should know how our local governments could do better before they ask for the funds and after they receive the new funds approved by the voters of their communities.

Thank Our Incumbent For Regressive Taxes

                       Bill                Impact                    Her Vote
SB-1 Gas and Car Tax (2017) · Increased the Excise tax on gasoline to 12 cents a gallon and diesel even more.

· Increased vehicle registration fees $25-175

 YES
Sb-231 Local government: fees and charges. · Allows property tax to be increased for storm water projects without voter approval. YES
SB-2 Transaction Tax · Added a $75 (max $225) tax for real estate transactions YES
Ab 398 Cap and trade · Could raise gas prices by an estimated 63 cents per gallon in 2021.

· Make our state even more expensive to do business in.

 YES