Contra Costa Taxpayers Association
Current President's Report
President's Report - Spring, 2019
Several issues of note, as CoCoTax continues its mission of promoting “good government at affordable cost” for taxpayers:
· Several members braved rain-slick highway 80 to attend our sister organization’s 58th annual dinner in Sacramento last evening. SacTax hosted its Golden Fleece Award, which went to the Sacramento Unified School District. The district, which has been in financial distress for years, negotiated fat new pay raises for its teachers’ union. Yet, the district announced that it will be forced to make draconian budget cuts this year and next, actually cutting teacher slots and reducing vital support staff.
On the positive side, SacTax also recognized the superintendent of the Sacramento County Board of Education, which oversees all public school districts in the county, who has warned Sacramento Unified that its budget projections are inadequate, and may lead to the district going into receivership, as it has in the past. Ironically, should the district go into receivership, it is the county superintendent who will select the receiver.
(Both the SacTax president and Jon Coupal, CEO of the Howard Jarvis TPA, thanked our CoCoTax members for attending the event...and our table was granted first in line for the buffet!) We will host our own “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Awards” later this year; stay tuned.
· In an editorial in today’s East Bay Times, BART Director Debra Allen points out the massive fare evasion problem, noting that lax enforcement has cost BART tens of millions in lost revenues. As has always been the case at BART, San Francisco and Oakland directors continue to ignore the concerns of Contra Costa commuters, including those taxpayers living in East County, who still have no convenient BART service, even after paying the BART tax for 40 years. We appreciate Debra’s efforts!
· More concrete chunks have fallen on motorists crossing the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, the third such incident in recent weeks. The bridge has become only the latest example of the failure of the state to adequately maintain our critical public transportation infrastructure, endangering our very lives while draining our wallets to support various social welfare programs and subsidies for illegal aliens.
Join us for our April 26 board breakfast; our speaker will be Rusty Watts, county tax collector, who always provides very useful information for our taxpayers. Visit www.cocotax.org for more details and to register.
Jack Weir