Goleta Critique

Why are we hiring 17 new employees when the city is broke?
Why are we pursuing new bike paths when the city is broke?
Why are we building a train station when the city is broke?

Wait, you say, “We are not broke!” Then I must ask why are you proposing a sales tax increase? After all, sales tax is inflationary proof, when the cost of toilet paper doubles so does your sales tax revenue.

I look around town and see you squander money for highway signs that say senior zone.
You squander money on one-hour parking signs and $150,000 for an enforcement cart and then don’t enforce.
You squander money on bike lanes that are seldom used. When I tried to find any information that showed the level of use by bicycles, the city could produce nothing. No studies, no bike trip counts.

Fiscal prudence says one should establish a need before one builds another bike path.

Fiscal prudence says you don’t hire more people when you are broke; it says you cut expenditures.

Fiscal prudence says someone should supervise a construction project so a mile of roadway is not stripped, painted out black, and then re-striped for the third time. It doesn’t matter that the cost was on the contractor’s dime; one has to ask how did it get that far? Who is supervising the expenditure of our tax dollars?

The citizens of Goleta do not need traffic circles on Hollister Avenue if taxes need to go up to build them. Fiscal prudence says, one does not start new road projects when you cannot maintain the infrastructure you currently have. I can tell you our residential street and sidewalks are in need, just ask the citizens of your community.

Why is it that government’s answer to poor planning is to raise taxes? Why talk of raising the transient occupancy tax? Why raise sales tax? Why say you oppose a business tax because you support small business yet would take away the one percent competitive edge that they gain from being less than Santa Barbara. I have never heard it said that Santa Barbara was a model for fiscal prudence.

What did you do with the $2.6 million in cannabis tax you’ve received each year since it was legalized? In a budget of $33 million that is a hell of a jump in annual revenue! Where did it go?

When average income in Goleta is $39,617 it might be time to look at the city’s payroll. It is time to eliminate needless projects. Less projects means less staff and more revenue to repair existing infrastructure which should come first. Prudence says, the City Council’s goal should be a city that is not so broke that it needs to raise taxes!