Letters: Funding new cities

Re “New cities? Not now,” Editorial, Aug. 3

Writing about the financial plight of four new Riverside County cities caused by the state’s diversion of vehicle license fee (VLF) funds without a public hearing, The Times suggested that new cities should have mature revenue streams. This is a lot like suggesting a young child should be self-supporting.

State law requires proposed new cities to prove their fiscal viability. A few years ago the League of California Cities sponsored legislation to allocate more VLF funds to new cities and to “annexed inhabited areas” for their first five years, since the cities weren’t in existence in 2004 when the Legislature passed a law to give property taxes to cities in place of VLF funds. This is the law the state effectively abolished last year without public hearing or any concern about the vital services that cities can more effectively deliver.

This constitutionally protected VLF funding should be restored.

Chris McKenzie

Sacramento

The writer is executive director of the League of California Cities.

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