Clean, safe, quiet and taxless

ALLAN MANSOOR

As many of you know, the state and the city are facing financial

conditions that are forcing us to look at cuts or increasing revenue

through taxes or fees. This issue came up at the March 1 City Council

meeting, and we discussed whether we want to focus more on cuts in

programs or increasing taxes or fees. It is imperative that we make

cuts in programs prior to raising taxes and fees.

If we simply raise taxes now, we won’t learn to live within our

means and will continue to spend on things the government has no

business being involved in. This is what the governor’s $15-billion

bond measure has done. Sure, the governor has bought us some time,

but the state continues to spend more than it takes in.

What concerns me is the comments made by Planning Commissioner

Katrina Foley. Now, I respect Foley’s right to her position, but

clearly, we see things differently. That is good for a healthy

discussion, so I would like to add some diversity of ideas to this

matter.

Foley expressed concern at the last council meeting that many of

the items, which are in the “low priority,” are those items that

“really bring community together and are part of our quality of life;

and are really mostly beneficial to the residents of the city.”

She urged the council to “strongly consider ways to increase

revenue or make those programs more efficient before just absolutely

eliminating them because they are very important to residents.”

This mentality of “let’s be quick to raise taxes or fees first” is

of great concern to me. We should approach the issue of tax and fee

increases with great caution. And whether we increase them, our

primary focus should be on funding infrastructure and public safety.

When the coffers were full, the state expanded programs and not only

neglected infrastructure, but took funds that were specifically

earmarked for it and used them for programs. Now, the state needs to

borrow money to pay for schools.

At the local level, some of the programs we offer are birthday

parties, mobile recreation program, day camp with trips to places

like Knott’s Berry Farm and a job center. These programs are also

used by people outside of our city at our expense.

Now, to me, the job of bringing the community together belongs to

the family, churches, and private organizations, such as the Boy

Scouts, or sports organizations. This is not the job of government.

It is not the city’s business to facilitate birthday parties or take

children to amusement parks.

The mobile recreation program consists of a big truck, which has a

portable basketball hoop, a ping-pong table and some other games. Why

can’t the people on a neighborhood street get together to buy a

basketball hoop for their street? This program alone costs about

$100,000 a year.

The trips to amusement parks don’t take in anywhere near what it

costs to run them.

Almost 40% of the people using the city Job Center each day come

from outside of the city. That percentage closely mirrors the amount

turned away each day. At the very least, we should limit use of the

center to people who live in the city so they have a better chance at

finding work.

As we look at the budget in the coming weeks, we should focus on

cuts prior to an increase in fees or taxes. And even if we do

increase fees or taxes, the revenue should be focused on

infrastructure, such as street repair and public safety. The focus

should be on making Costa Mesa a clean, safe, quiet place to live.

That will lead to an improved quality of life.

* ALLAN MANSOOR is a Costa Mesa city councilman.