Letters: Football and dementia

There is NO guarantee that the money generated from a nearly 10% sales tax. California is a state that continues to try and tax and fee its people to budget solvency when they refuse to deal with excessive spending. For instance, in Salinas, city officials gave out HUGE raises, up to 48% over a relatively short 3-5 year period and post Measure V - I believe.

Civil servants once traded job security/lower pay for job insecurity/higher pay in the public sector. A brief two decades ago and very few in Salinas made over $50,000 a year, the police base pay was nothing impressive, it was a living and they were able to afford to raise a family on their salaries. Now its not enough, yet many of them went and bought new toys, boats, houses they couldn't afford and can't give up the high pay they now receive.

The supporters are so reluctant to addresses the out of control salary schedules of many in city administration. City managers and police chiefs at nearly $300,000 a year with their benefit package? Dennis Donohue made $25,000 from his council position, the other council people made about $19,800. Remember this does not include the various fees they receive for sitting on commissions in the County.

Far from the free work Dennis Donohue portrays his salary as, look its a losing battle to go after the establishments record and support. Newspapers have rarely found a tax they couldn't support. People with something to gain directly from government in terms of favorable treatment rarely find a government issue, at that moment in time, that they cannot support.

I believe looking at the players one must consider a few factors. Its the same old Yes crowd. Even the accounting firm Hayashi & Wayland handling Measure K's bookkeeping (according to a Herald report on the Cedar Funding federal investigation) is under federal scrutiny.

There is no way, and I challenge anyone to prove this or remind us of how wrong they were, that Salinas can hire 10-15 new officers quickly let alone 85. They WILL NEVER HIRE 85 officers in YOUR lifetime. The $20,000,000 is going to be needed for Salinas' HUGE budget problem and the coming CALPERS invoice, not yet funded. So much for new officers.

It is this sort of disingenuousness that disgusts the average person who has looked into the various ramblings of Salinas' mayor, picking out parts that sounds like a coherent statement and investigating that statement. Dennis Donohue has made a number of misrepresentations and his claim that the other side has made a number of misrepresentations is reminiscent of the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital half billion dollar property tax they wanted to lay on Salinas residents or THEY WOULD CLOSE. The Sky is Falling Argument.

Guess what, SVMH is open for business and expanding AND committed to retrofits. They pulled a fast one and the people that voted for it almost fell for it, don't be fooled again.

Who is going to pay for the operating cost of light rail? Local Cities|