Increase in Sales Tax for LB

A whopping 24% of voters turned out to vote on an increased sales tax for the next six years here in town. It passed with 55% of the vote. 15% of voters were absentee. Still only about 5000 voters voted overall. Enough to make it official.

The increased sales tax will begin July 1st and will put us on the map as having the highest sales tax in OC. Same as LA county. 8.25 %.

The monies raised by the increase are supposed to be used to help pay for the rebuilding of the hill that fell down during the summer. Bluebird Canyon, where I believe eleven homeowners lost everything. The hill is going to be rebuilt, like another part of it was back in the late seventies. Which is still standing.

It was my opinion that this was a bad precedent. The city didn't pay for a home that came tumbling down a couple of years ago. The family heard noise and got out just in time. The city cleaned up the mess and sent the family a bill for $75,000. I believe the family and the city made a deal in the end, where the city did help pay those fees. Of course, it was kept quiet because they didn't want to set a bad precedent. Along comes the city to shore up the hill and I was told by a contractor who was working on the street, on another project, that the work they were doing would not be enough for the road not to erode any more. In fact he was told by the workers that they knew it was not good enough to shore up the road. But, that is what they were told to do.

I don't have much confidence in many aspects of our local government. Especially the building department and certainly not the design review board. It all depends on who you know to get work permits in town. I am waiting to see if the loser neighbor Scrooge gets the "powerful person" he knows from the city to help him take out historical trees, without permits or contacting the neighbors up here.

Anyhow, I will be interested in seeing how well the hill gets reconstructed. I hope the work is good and that those who lost homes will somehow be able to afford to rebuild their homes, once they have a hill again. I was not wishing that this tax did not pass out of ill feelings toward any of those poor people. I was just wondering what would happen if another hill falls down. Will it come out of the monies left over from the current project? Will there be leftover money? Will the city have to pay to clean it up? Will we raise taxes again? Will this six year sales tax go away in six years? So many questions that I have, with very few answers. I just hope no more houses or hills come down ever again.