70th Assembly GOP canddiate Don Wagner finally stopped harping about social issues long enough to absolutely nail his RINO opponent, Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante, for raising local taxes and water fees. Here is the copy from his mailer:
Jerry Amante’s City of Tustin:
Innovative Ways to Hike Local Taxes
Voters in the 70th Assembly District have received mailers from Jerry Amante’s campaign featuring tax fighter Howard Jarvis. They would be surprised to find that Mayor Amante and his City of Tustin have found several innovative ways to hike local taxes, even winning an award for their tax-hiking prowess from the pro-tax Association of Defense Communities.
It is no secret that Mayor Amante was a major supporter of the largest tax increase in the history of Orange County – Measure M, which has provided him, as head of the OC Transportation Authority, with control over billions of hard earned tax dollars. Much more innovative have been the imposition of ever-increasing, never ending “Special Tax B” property taxes on community facilities districts (CFD’s) on the former Tustin Marine Base.
Community facilities districts are typically used to fund development of new facilities and infrastructure in an area, funded by special property taxes accepted by the residents in those new areas.
Schools, parks and roads have been built with bond money that these Mello-Roos taxes provide. So far, there are three Mello-Roos districts on the former Tustin Marine Base. These taxes expire as the construction bonds are paid.
Mayor Amante and his City Council allies have created a new tax – Special Tax B – on these CFD’s residents. This additional tax is forbidden to be used to repay the bonds. It is instead strictly to be used for salaries and services provided or
authorized by the City of Tustin, up to the City determined “Special Tax Requirement for Services.”
These services are defined as including police, fire protection, ambulance and paramedic services, recreational programs, and maintenance of parks and roads – all services that other residents do not pay extra taxes to fund.
How much are these “Special Tax B” amounts? In the Columbus Villages area, the maximum for a 2,000 square foot house is $1,020 per year, which increases each year by 2% to 6%, even if the CPI is negative, as it has been lately.
Unlike the Special Tax A used to pay off the construction bonds, which ends when the bonds are repaid, the Special Tax B always grows and never ends, according to City documents prepared for the CFD bonds. The $1,020 e.xtra per year is on top of
the $1,905 needed to pay the bonds – 54% in extra taxes each and every year forever!
The pro-tax Association of Defense Communities gave Amante’s City government an award for its many hidden taxes and fees on the Marine base, including:
• 2% of house prices on WL Homes sales
• 50% of profits on all market rate residential sales by Tustin Legacy Community Partners after minimal profit
• Required over $30 million in developer “contributions” towards City expenses
• “receives 25% of rents paid on retail tenant leases” at The District shopping center.
Recently, the hand-picked developer of “Tustin Legacy” has declared the project “worthless.” No wonder! Taxes killed it!
Will Jerry Amante take his legacy of taxes to the State Assembly in Sacramento? Voters will decide June 8.
Don’t be fooled by Amante’s anti-tax rhetoric. Jerry Amante knows innovative ways to hike taxes!
Sources: CFD documents for Community Facilities
Districts 06-1 and 07-1, Association of Defense
Communities web site at http://www.defensecommunities.org/?p=Awards
Will Jerry Amante hike Your Water Bill 34% or more?
Planning problems led the City staff to recommend an immediate water rate increases of up to 34% with ongoing increases of 6-17% each year for an additional four years – nearly doubling many family water bills in total.
Initially proposed last summer, Jerry Amante’s two allies voted FOR the huge increase, but Amante did not and it was defeated. Some speculated that Jerry’s unusual vote against his allies was due strictly to the fact that he was a candidate for State Assembly, and that he secretly supported the measure, lobbying other members of Council to support it.
Now the City staff has mailed out new notices of possible water hikes, with the hearing to be June 15th, exactly one week after the Republican Primary for State Assembly!
Reading the article on the reverse on Amante’s record supporting hikes in local taxes and fees, you will understand why many believe Amante will reverse himself and vote FOR this HUGE rate increase.
For what it’s worth, this piece apparently wasn’t put out by Wagner. A group called Tustin Taxpayers for Quality Schools takes credit for it. The Tustin school board has sued Amante and the city for their abusive behavior and it’s no secret in Tustin that Amante’s not very popular, at least among the people who know him. The whole school board endorsed Wagner, and Amante couldn’t even get a majority of his own counsel to back him.
Mike,
That is great! Thanks for the update.
Yeah, we sure want to say “no” to taxes, in a knee jerk response no matter what is needed to be funded.
Screw the schools, roads, courts, police and firefighting services, and everything else that separates us from a third world country. Just so long as we avoid the hideous spectre of paying for things that we want.
Rapscalion, the real problem is the hypocrisy involved in Amante claiming to be a “purist” anti-taxer when he obviously is not. The residents of Tustin twice supported school bond measures by supermajorities, so it isn’t that they aren’t willing to pay for what they want. But they deserve officeholders who are forthright about it, not ones who say one thing and do another.
I agree in principle, taxpayer, but as one myself I’m just really tired of the no tax mantra repeated over and over again by the truly clueless as to how the state functions. The fact that we are all held hostage by a minority from places like Kern County is especially galling.
Amante is dust in this race. It’s over for you Senor Bigote! Talk about a face made for radio!
I think at this point, knowing what I know, I am rooting for Wagner and Glover to come through in the fall. That will be an interesting race, and the conversation about Tax and Regulate will be very heated.