PORT HUENEME : Mayor to Request Taxes for Services

In his State of the City address today, Port Hueneme Mayor Orvene Carpenter will ask the city’s residents and business leaders to support tax increases to pay for everything from city landscaping to the Police Department.

“It will not be enough for citizens to simply declare how much they value certain city services,” Carpenter said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce. “They must be willing to pay for them.”

In his address, Carpenter also is expected to seek support for the city’s plan to build a recreational vehicle resort--a project that has drawn fire from environmentalists.

The plan to build the 143-space resort was stalled when the Coastal Commission’s staff recommended against building the project, saying it would damage a habitat of the endangered California least tern.

But Carpenter said the RV resort could bring the city an additional $600,000 in annual revenues in the face of state budget cutbacks of up to $1 million.

“Without new revenue, Port Hueneme will undoubtedly decline,” the mayor said in his prepared remarks.

Of the city’s landscape maintenance, recreation programs and the Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center--which have all been suggested for cuts--Carpenter wrote: “Many of these city services have come to define Port Hueneme. . . . We are about to lose much of what we have worked so hard to achieve. We’re about to lose some of our quality of life.”

Carpenter will give his address at the chamber’s 7:30 a.m. breakfast. The cost is $12 at the door.