Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Measure C amounts to a blank check

The Los Gatos Weekly-Times invited Egon Jensen, who heads the opposition to Measure C, the utility-users' tax, and Joe Pirzynski, who chairs the Yes on Measure C committee, to state their cases for our opinion pages. This week, Jensen argues against the measure, which is on the March 26 ballot; in the March 20th issue, Pirzynski's commentary will occupy this space. --Editor

By Egon Jensen

I oppose Measure C, the Los Gatos utility-users tax, for four main reasons. I believe it is an inappropriate response to our town's financial problems, and I object to the highly inappropriate manner in which the council majority sought to impose it on Los Gatos residents. I oppose the tax because it is an additional burden on our senior citizens who live on fixed incomes. Finally, I oppose it because its wording gives no guarantees that Los Gatans' money will be not be misspent in the future, as it has been in the recent past.

This tax would never have been proposed if existing tax money had been used intelligently. Indeed, some of our local politicians are trying to use Measure C to divert attention from their spending record by claiming that our quality of life will be jeopardized if we citizens don't dig deeper into our pockets. These same politicians are playing a misleading "blame game," suggesting that Sacramento, not Town Hall, is responsible for our local budget problems.

Perhaps the most irksome example of bad financial management is the present council's attempt to function as a specialized savings and loan association for town employees. According to public records, the town loaned a total of $525,000 on extremely generous terms to the police chief and town manager to purchase homes. Our [then] mayor and a majority of councilmembers claimed the loans were necessary because of the high cost of Los Gatos real estate. One can hardly help questioning the town's line of reasoning, since town employees are already paid better than many residents. Specifically, the police chief's annual salary is $85,389 plus the standard employee benefits package, while the town manager receives $99,000 plus the benefits package and a generous annuity retirement program.

I cannot help wondering about Mayor Randy Attaway's attitude toward public money. He insists town employees may properly receive taxpayer assistance to buy homes, while admitting that such a basic town responsibility as street and sidewalk maintenance has been deferred as a cost-cutting measure! Result: Los Gatos' infrastructure is in terrible shape, and we residents will pay much more for repair than we would have paid for consistent maintenance.

In February/March 1990, the Los Gatos Town Council purchased two parcels of land behind Town Hall for a new library. In addition to $1,764,650 for the land, the deal included generous relocation payments to the occupants of several houses on the parcels. The town now owns the necessary land, but there is no money left to build the library. Was it appropriate to tie up public money in this way, given the pressing need for maintenance of existing roads and structures?

Besides wondering what our councilmembers think about public money, I have to wonder what they think of the public itself. A council majority attempted to impose the utility-users tax directly, by its own authority, claiming public hearings could replace a vote of all the people concerned. At the hearings, the citizens of Los Gatos clearly said they wanted the town to foster economic development--not impose new taxes--as a response to the budget crisis. Indeed, Los Gatos businesses, a key portion of our existing tax base, will be among the hardest hit by Measure C because they are the largest consumers of electricity, water and other utilities. This being the case, it is interesting that the San Jose Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce [which is affiliated with the new Town of Los Gatos chamber] contributed $1,000 to get the campaign for Measure C off the ground.

Supporters of Measure C say the utility-users tax will not harm our town's low-income senior citizens because they will be able to apply for exemption. What they don't add is this: anyone who applies for such exemption will be required to reveal private financial information to town bureaucrats. Is this a quality-of-life upgrade for our neighbors on fixed incomes?

But these considerations aside, I am disgusted by the way some members of our Town Council have tried to use this issue to stifle dissent within their own ranks. I refer, of course, to the council's action last fall that denied Councilmember Steve Blanton his due turn as mayor, a maneuver without precedent in the more than 35 years I've been involved in our town's civic life. By Mayor Attaway's own admission, this "palace coup" occurred because Blanton consistently opposed the utility-users tax. I never thought I'd see the day when members of the Los Gatos Town Council would cast aside established tradition and simple fairness to punish a fellow member for defending the community's best interest as he saw it.

How can our Town Council look Los Gatans in the eye and ask for a bailout when several councilmembers' conduct surrounding this issue has been so dubious, and hundreds of thousands of public dollars have been spent on individuals instead of the community? Further, with a $13 million existing budget, how can Town Hall approach us for more in the absence of any plan to improve efficiency? Under these circumstances, do the proponents of Measure C really expect intelligent voters to cooperate, when the Measure's wording provides no assurances how our money will be spent?

My friends and neighbors fighting this tax as Citizens for Responsible Government believe that to support the utility-users tax is to endorse continued mismanagement of our community's funds and lack of vision for its future.

Let's not sign a blank check! I urge a NO vote on Measure C.