Both the St. Helena Star and the Napa Register ran articles on the NVTA this week. Here are some key paragraphs:
Star--"
Haley said he discovered that Napa County had no money for a parks and open space district, even though it has the highest per capita tax collections in the state. According to Haley, the primary culprit for the county’s money woes is the rapidly increasing amount of money going to salaries, benefits and retirements for public employees.
Haley said that three years ago, 77 percent of the city of Napa’s operating budget went to employee compensation and benefits; last year, that number had jumped to 88 percent.
He said the same problem exists at the county, state and federal levels. For example, the state’s CalPERS public employee program had a $14 billion surplus in 1998; in 2003, it was $60 billion in the hole, he said.
A variety of factors are responsible for the “pension tsunami,” Haley said, including the rising cost of health care, increasing longevity, and excessive giveaways to powerful, well-funded safety employee unions during former Gov. Gray Davis’ term.
Haley said he hopes the NVTA will raise awareness about the problem until it reaches a critical mass that will result in action.
“The power and money available to public employee unions is expanding,” said Haley. “We’ve got to stand up and start fighting against that. To me, a taxpayers group is the best way to do that.”
Register--
"Taxpayer alliance board member Don Clark is a registered Democrat, but considers himself a fiscal conservative.
“I came from Texas originally so I’m a little more conservative than most Democrats in California,” he said, adding that he shares Haley’s concern about a potential government fiscal crisis.
“I think like everyone should,” he said. “I have big concerns about the budgets at all levels: city, county state, federal. I think there will have to be big decisions to be made.”
True to his blogging roots (he maintains the Web site napablogger.com), Haley posted a kind of manifesto on the napataxpayer.org Web site, calling for government entities to open their books to the public, release salary information on public employees and pass ordinances requiring a vote of the people for further pension increases. He even suggested to the Napa County Board of Supervisors that it form a citizens’ group not unlike the General Plan Update Steering Committee to evaluate county spending priorities.
“It’s just complicated,” Haley said of the pension issue, adding that there was a learning curve to being a fiscal watchdog. “I’m not against the unions. I think they’ve done great, but it’s just like anything in the world. Once you get power you keep on going ... at some point it has got to stop.”
I thought the articles were good and fairly representative of what I said, although I am not just necessarily looking for fiscal conservatives. I think all of us, left and right, have to be concerned about where the budgets are going. Favorite programs for liberals are getting lost, there is no money for parks, for health care or insurance for children, or really anything else.
Citizens are going to have to get active and speak up, othewise the level of debt and lack of services that has already gone way too far is going to swamp us.
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