Park Assessments

Re “The Figures Tell the Real Story on Park Assessment Balloting,” Ventura County Perspective, July 11.

Funny, in commenting on Moorpark taking advantage of a more favorable route to getting property tax increases passed, I don’t recall “implying that [the parks assessment] was overwhelmingly opposed in 1997.” I simply stated “the city’s previous park assessment attempt failed to obtain the two-thirds super-majority required for property tax increases before the passage of Proposition 218.”

As such, I have to admit guilt in misrepresenting the manner in which the original assessment was created. I also failed to give credit to the one positive aspect of Proposition 218: Governing bodies have to put assessments to a vote. I sincerely hope readers can look past these miscues and focus on the issue at hand.

At face value, Roseann Mikos seems to make a striking, if off-track, case. However, she should not have done so without also referring to the part of Proposition 218 that affords property owners a vote for every piece of property they own. For example, if Mrs. and Mr. X own 10 properties, they get to “vote” 10 times although the tenants who are essentially paying their property taxes are not included in the process.

Using Mikos’ figures, if a realistic one-third of Moorpark residents did not own one of the homes they occupied, a full 5,500 taxpayers were excluded from the city’s assessment vote. And that’s just not very democratic, now is it?

Education is everything, as Mikos well knows. She recalls how many of her supporters said they did not understand that in 1997 all the city was asking was to continue an existing fee, not to tack on a new one. Had they known, she says, they would have supported the 1997 measure.

Well, bully for them! How many of them would have supported Proposition 218 if they fully understood the renter exclusion and tax override clauses? Better yet, how many would now look back at Howard Jarvis’ other brainstorm and change their vote on Proposition 13, in light of what it has wrought?

The democratic process is rooted in the concept of “one person, one vote, disregarding any distinctions of privilege or position” (New Century Dictionary). Many would-be voters have already given up on the whole electoral process because they rightly feel that only the well-to-do matter anyway. Continued votes under the terms of Proposition 218 will only fuel this discontent, instilling a plutocratic system where once a democratic one reigned.

BRUCE ROLAND, Ojai