Keep Local Dollars in Local Communities

Re “Thinking Outside Big-Box Zoning,” April 29

Your article about the regional implications of city governments that use zoning powers to improve sales tax income touched the edges of the fiscal dilemma faced by California communities but did not address the underlying causes.

All cities must have a general plan that balances residential, retail, manufacturing, office, recreation, schools and public uses. The plan reflects geographic and economic factors and community input. The point is, development is done with considerable forethought.

The perceived bias toward retail is driven by unintended consequences of Proposition 13 that allow the state Legislature to divert local property taxes from cities. During its early 1990s budget crisis, the state initiated a diversion of local revenues that now costs residents more than $4.9 billion per year. As we anticipate a $20-billion state budget deficit for the coming year, cities are again forced to prepare to fight against even more diversions.

The state feels safe in diverting local dollars to subsidize state responsibilities. This sense of insulation also allows the state to adopt laws that pass costs on to cities for which there is no identified revenue source. These unfunded mandates are as damaging to local governments as the more overt diversions.

The current legislative proposal calling for sales-tax sharing ignores costs associated with retail uses. The fundamental issue is that cities need constitutional protection of their revenue sources or our quality of life will be threatened by poorly maintained streets and roads, lack of parks and recreational opportunities and cuts to public safety services.

Local control works if cities are not starved for resources. Any conversation regarding the viability of city services must begin with a commitment to keep local dollars within the local communities.

Anything else is a Band-Aid.

Ralph H. Bauer

Mayor pro tem,

Huntington Beach

President,

League of California Cities,

Orange County division