Voters Deserve Say in City Subsidy of Mall

For several months, people have been asking why I oppose the expansion of the Buenaventura Mall. I do not oppose the expansion, just the giving away of tax dollars.

The mall owner is supposedly spending $12.5 million on “public benefit improvements” and will receive $32 million in return. Of the $12.5 million, only 25%--or $3 million--is to be spent on traffic improvements. The other 75%--or $9 million--will go toward the construction of a parking garage on the mall property. The parking garage is no more a public benefit than the existing parking lot. The mall representative who sold this concept to the city should receive the salesman of the year award.

The owners have stated they need the contribution of tax dollars for them to receive a reasonable return on their investment. That, of course, is the essential element of this proposal. In the free enterprise system, an entrepreneur is entitled to make an investment with the prospect of making a profit, not a guarantee by taxpayers to see that he makes a profit.

Nearly all major retailers, such as the Price Club, Walmart, K-Mart, ask cities for a kickback of sales tax revenues they generate. Not all cities cave in to that demand.

If the City Council can convince the taxpayers of Ventura that a parking garage for the mall is a public benefit, then so be it. But the voters are entitled to have a vote on the matter. It is unconscionable for the council to quickly approve this development agreement in order to deny the voters their right.

JERE ROBINGS

Ventura

Jere Robings is president of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers and co-chairman of Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway.