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Fiscal & Personal Responsibility
The Republican Party of Orange County regularly solicits the views and news of the state and federal delegation. Please read this week's Op-Ed by Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor
At the October 20th, 2003 Costa Mesa City Council meeting, an item came before the council regarding grant funding in the amount of $24,782 for seatbelt enforcement. The grant money was federal funds that were given to the California Office Of Traffic Safety to be given to cities specifically for seatbelt enforcement. I voted to not accept the funds. My reasoning was not that I don't believe seatbelts save lives, but more along the lines of the federal and state government taking too much of our money and giving it back with strings attached. I was tempted to vote to accept the money and say, "thanks, but you should never have taken the money in the first place." But I wanted to make a point. This was true then and it is true now.
My point is how does Sacramento or Washington know what our needs are? How do they know if we need seatbelt enforcement, DUI enforcement, infrastructure repair, funding for schools, or funds for immediate apprehension of a dangerous criminal? That same evening we unanimously approved grants in the amount of $13, 994 for sobriety checkpoints and $1,992 for roving patrols for impaired drivers. This is far less than the amount for seatbelt enforcement. Unfortunately, a good part of our budgets come to us in the form of grants with strings attached, so often times there is little room to re-direct funds where they are needed most. I guess government knows best.
Later in the evening during the council meeting, the council unanimously passed a resolution in support of "a statewide ballot initiative to allow voters to decide whether local tax funds may be taken, shifted, diverted, or otherwise used to fund state government operations and responsibilities." According to the staff report, every year for the past 12 years the state has seized city property tax funds statewide, costing cities a total of over $9.6 billion in lost revenue. Costa Mesa has lost more than $55 million over the last 10 years based on shifts, diversions, and taking of revenues by the state. The staff report illustrates that the $55 million would be enough to fund the following components of the city's seven year capital improvement plan: the entire street maintenance program ($51 million), over half of the citywide traffic improvements ($29 million), all of the city's parkway and median improvements ($4 million), and all planned park improvements and community programs, including construction of a 50-meter pool and lighted soccer and youth baseball fields ($4 million).
Yes, we write grants requesting money. We write grants for pretty much anything we can to fund our city government. This takes staff time and money. It takes the state and federal government time and money to process the grants and give the money back to us. So this raises a good question. Why did we give it to them in the first place? Better yet, why did they take it? Or even better, why do we continue to allow them to take it?
Perhaps our new governor will find a way to help cities keep more money locally and thus allow more decisions to be made locally. I mean do we really need an office of traffic safety at the state level to give us money from the federal government that should never have left individuals and cities in the first place? The way I see it we already have a local office of traffic safety. It's called your local police department. With the budget the way it is in Sacramento , it just shows how out of touch they are with the needs of the cities and with reality.
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