Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas Holidays are a few weeks away. What will the City of Santa Clara bring to you in the New Year?
How about a few tax increases?
Your City Council majority is floating a few ideas to raise funds from the community with a few new taxes.
Now consider this: The economy has been booming. Earnings are at record levels. Unemployment is at the lowest rate in recorded history and…your City needs money.
The question here is…should residents and businesses pay higher taxes because our Mayor and her City Council majority have been bad stewards with your tax dollars?
Let’s examine a few examples.
This Council majority hired Deanna Santana as City Manager with a $700,000 package ranking her compensation with the top City Managers in the State.
Santana, in turn, hired a costly crop of old cronies that came onto City staff at the top of the City wage scale. Several of these people are being paid $300,000 plus benefits that run another $120,000 per person.
Perhaps the least talked about, and most costly, is the pay rate increases provided our police force in town as payback for supporting the Mayor. Santa Clara has great officers in our City and a force to be proud of. However, how can a city the size of Santa Clara, afford to make them the second most highly compensated police force in the State of California?
Someone must pay and that someone is YOU.
This Council and City Manager have been playing the old walnut shell game, moving money, borrowing from Peter to finance Paul. Now, Peter is short on funds and Paul still wants to be paid.
Bad Council decisions should not be rewarded by levying new taxes, especially at the expense of our residents and business owners.
It is apparent the only cure for calculated cronyism is containment until next year’s election.
When this Council voted to enforce a 10 p.m. curfew at the stadium it cost a bundle. The loss of three to four sell-out events per year cut $5 to $6 million out of our budget. This was another ill-conceived and costly decision.
We are not talking NASA brain power here. Basic math tells us you don’t have to be smarter than a 4th grader to know you don’t spend more than you make.
Paying off political promises is eventually a painful payment.
You as a resident taxpayer might ask yourself, “is my income going up as fast as my City employees?”
Good management is first noticed by its absence.
This is what’s missing at City Hall.
View Comments (2)
I have to say that the mayor and city council need to wake up. Ms Santana is running our city into bankruptcy. Why do you think that ms Santana suggested a two year budget?? Could it be because she has hired so many assistant city managers that are listed under the city managers office but there is no money in this years budget???
If we have a Mayor, why do we need a City Manager. The mayor is supposed to run the city.