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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-01-16 Written Communications - EpsteinW �i+ 1 Gottq k Nic4bNS — apStpiN ( cities in San Diego County a 58,000 population and with both a police and fire departments ) General Fund expenditures per person General Fund $ Population Per person Carlsbad: $135 million = 1135000 = $1,195 per person Encinitas: $61.7 million = 65,000 = San Diego: $1.2 billion = 1.4 million = National City: $45.7 million = 58,000 = San Marcos: $66.9 million = 875000 = La Mesa: $42.8 million = 5800 = Oceanside: $131 million = 183,000— 83,000=Santee: Santee: $37.9 million = 5800 = Vista: $62.4 million = 9800 = El Cajon: $66.6 million = 105,000— 05,000—Escondido: Escondido: $91.3 million = 147-5000 = Chula Vista: $140 million = 250,000 = Coronado (only 25,000 people) $ 949 per person $ 858 per person $ 788 per person $ 769 per person $ 738 per person $ 714 per person $ 653 per person $ 637 per person $ 634 per person $ 621 per person $ 560 per person $2,133 per person We are NOT.urging you to vote one way or the other on Measure X. But we feel you should knowwhy this is happening. Two years ago voters approved Measure P to increase our Sales Tax for "deferred maintenance," that is, repairing infrastructure that had for long not been maintained because we lacked the money. Now we are being asked to approve an additional Sales Tax increase for the purpose of helping our Police and Fire departments. Is the City that short of money? Yes, in fact the City is. Of the 12 largest cities in the County of San Diego, Chula Vista is dead last in terms of dollars -per -resident in our city's General Fund. Additionally, we are second lowest in the County in terms of Sales Tax revenues per person. Why is our city so poor? Because decade after decade our City Councils have chosen to let the city grow almost exclusively by residential developments - - we have had little `commercial' and very little `industrial' developments, and those are the developments that create a tax base (as well as a job base). Time after time after time, developers have asked the Council"to change land designated `industrial' in the General Plan to a designation of `residential.' Crossroads II has opposed every such proposal, but we have never prevailed. Thus Chula Vista is now a very large "bedroom community," and not much else — except fiscally poor. So the present Measure X, as well as Measure P passed two years ago, is the result of Councils past and present allowing the city to be developed in such an unbalanced way without a sustainable tax base. And there is no evidence to suggest that these 10 -years -at -a -time tax - supplements will not go on ad infinitum. We thought you might want to know. Crossroads II Board of Directors