State’s Vehicle Fees Drive Budgets of Small Towns

Re “Loss of Vehicle Fees Could Drive Some Cities to Brink,” Jan. 17: After reading about the plight of the cities of Calipatria, Laguna Woods and others, I must come to the following conclusion: Perhaps some cities should unincorporate.

Does a city such as Calipatria -- with such a small population (3,500) and “little more than a grocery and hardware store” -- really need to be a city at all? It seems that this unnecessary level of bureaucracy exists only because the good citizens of the rest of the state have been paying for it through taxes on their vehicles -- on which they have already paid taxes at the time of purchase. The fact that Calipatria was able to count the 4,000 inmates at the state prison as part of its population is a further abuse of the vehicle fees.

Vehicle taxpayers are also supporting the existence of the city of Laguna Woods, a gated cooperative housing community of retirees. After reading that Laguna Woods might have to cut “subsidized tickets to the Laguna Playhouse and discounted beach and park passes,” I say let it unincorporate and receive its fair share of county services instead.

Dana Archer

Granada Hills