Editors, Daily Planet:
One of the problems with the Community Benefit District (CBD) proposed for West Berkeley is its lack of specifics. Merely duplicating City services is not a program that can be tracked or measured. How can we tell if the fact that we haven’t been raped or burgled is due to the private security presence (only proposed for daylight hours) or simply because we live in a somewhat civilized society that provides an effective police force? If a benefit district has a specific project such as undergrounding the utilities there is a way to measure progress and success. For the proposed CBD the services to be provided are vague and there is no way to measure their effectiveness.
Furthermore the proposed services were decided upon with no input from the majority of property and business owners in the affected area. Many of us feel city services are adequate and we do not wish to be taxed to duplicate those services. In some cases a weighted method of apportioning taxes seems appropriate. For example, if there was a benefits district for sewers or undergrounding utilities the property owners who use the most of the service should pay the most. It would be relatively easy in such a case to calculate usage and benefit and apportion it accordingly. Where the type and amount of service is stated in the vague manner of the proposal now being considered how is it possible to measure the effectiveness and fair proportioning of the services? This benefit district was concocted by a few large property owners. They are a minority in numbers but wealthy in land and therefore get to tax the majority of the property owners. To those of us who were brought up to believe democracy is the ideal form of government this weighted power for the wealthy is shocking. Just because it is legal does not make it right.
The Mello-Roos bill of 1982 was designed to allow this form of taxation in order to make up the shortfall to cities from the passage of Proposition 13. However it contains an insidious accelerated foreclosure clause. The County must allow tax payers 5 years to catch up when their taxes are in arrears, the CBD may foreclose after 180 days. The potential land grab of foreclosed properties by developers seems obvious.
The effects of Proposition 13 are still being felt and continue limit the ability of cities to provide the services that make the local environment viable and pleasant. The short-sighted voters in 1979 passed a law for their own benefit without realizing the unintended long-term consequences. Californians who want to live in clean and well-functioning communities with adequate services are going to have to put the public interest ahead of their self-interest and roll back Proposition 13. Then there would be no need to bring in outside private resources with little or no accountability to citizens.
Margret Elliott |
