ARENA AFTERMATH - PART II
By Joe Sullivan

On March 21st, the Sacramento Grand Jury, in a report, slammed City and County Sacramento officials, asking "Have the City and County deceived their citizens regarding their dealings with the Kings?" And in 9 pages of text clearly demonstrated the answer was yes. They wrote, "Sacramento County breached the good faith of honest and open communications by placing Measures Q and R on the ballot asserting a deal which did not exist." The report began with the first attempts in Sacramento to build a sports facility with public money, and continued through the history of the building and financing of the existing Arco arena, and the purchase of the Kansas City Kings in 1983. It is a fascinating story of the ease with which speculators get land rezoned, and mentioned the influence of campaign contributions from developers. The financing of the arena and its terms are a story within itself, the full details of which have never been fully presented. Concerning the financing, the Grand Jury was informed, "the documents were approximately 800 pages and were not available to members of the public." The Grand Jury had to make a formal written request to obtain the 800 pages. When describing the City's financing of the original arena the Grand Jury's report noted, "As an aside, the Sacramento City Sports Policy allows direct public subsidy of infrastructure without a vote of the people (Emphasis added.)"

The history went on to relate that, "Since 2001 there have been a number of studies and proposals to build a new arena for the Kings." In 2006 the City and County spent over $300,000 for sports consultants and attorneys to craft a new arena deal for the Kings, and the report noted, "No work product was available to the Grand Jury, upon its request, resulting from this expenditure." Then the latest expenditure was $700,000 leading to the placement of Measures Q & R on the November ballot. In addressing this action the report related, "In an effort to obtain public financing, Sacramento City and County officials agreed to put the matter on the November 7, 2006, ballot as Measures Q & R. The ballot measures as written were a blatant attempt to avoid the provisions of Proposition 218 in that Measure R was listed as a general tax (requiring a majority vote) and Measure Q was for distribution of the monies from the tax. Combined, they would have represented a special tax requiring a two-thirds vote." This obvious violation of law is exactly what brought the Taxpayers League to the forefront in its active participation with Assemblyman Dave Jones and his Coalition in the opposition, and ultimate defeat of Measure R by over 80% of the vote.

Of interest is that The Sacramento Bee reports comments about the report which include condemnations by Councilman Rob Fong, a negotiator of the Kings deal as, "really unprofessional", and by County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, another negotiator, that "This is one of my concerns about what goes on with the Grand Jury in many instances. They either fail to understand or choose not to understand what the true facts are, so they make findings and recommendations that are either inaccurate or not helpful."

We read the report and find the Grand Jury right on mark. We advise all taxpayers in the City and County of Sacramento to read the full detail of the Grand Jury report as it covers much more information on the concealed negotiations with the Kings, and the future Downtown Railyard Development, which will be the next City horror. Get on the web and type "Sacramento Grand Jury" on your search bar. The report is listed on the Home Page. All you have to do is download, or read the first 9 pages, to judge for yourselves who is giving you the true story.

A PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY 5, 2008
By Joe Sullivan

Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill that advanced the 2008 presidential primary to February 5, 2008, leaving behind the rest of the primary elections until June 3, 2008. Estimated extra cost to the state for this advanced election - $90 million of taxpayer's money, which will fall on the 58 counties if the state government doesn't cough up any cash to help the counties. But it is really not too different anyhow, as the state's cash is also taxpayer's money.

The supposed intent of the early election is to involve California in the primary election early, forcing presidential candidates to actively campaign in the state, in addition to campaigning in eastern states with early primaries. In the past, eastern and southern voters have decided who the presidential candidates will be, long before Californians have a chance to vote. This has now been changed.

However, this isn't the end of the story as there is another agenda in the game, involving two or more of our wily politicians. Legislative leaders hope to add a measure to the early ballot that would ask voters to approve a change in term limits law to allow incumbents to serve a maximum of 12 years in either the Assembly or Senate, or a combination of both, in lieu of serving a maximum of 6 years in the Assembly and 8 years in the Senate. Why? Perhaps because both Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez will be termed out in 2008, and if the term limit change is successful, both can run for additional terms in the Legislature.

And there is more in the game. Governor Schwarzenegger also wants a ballot measure revising how political Congressional and Legislative Districts are drawn after every 10-year census. He wants to take the redistricting process out of the hands of Legislators and put into the hands of a special independent commission. Although Perata and Nunez talked about supporting such a change, it has fallen off the radar screen with respect to the Legislative leaders, as all other Legislators and Congressional members don't want to lose the capability to gerrymander their districts to favor their possibilities for reelection. Gerrymandering was done in 2001, after the last census, and as a result virtually all incumbent Congressional office holders, and all incumbent Legislators, not termed out, who ran for reelection, were elected. This was discussed by the League Board at its meeting in March, and Board Member Carl Burton of the People's Advocate advised not to worry because Ted Costa, CEO of the People's Advocate has already prepared, and submitted an Initiative to the Attorney General for approval, and will be gathering signatures to do exactly the same thing. The Attorney General's response is due April 18th. With Ted's past successes getting Initiatives on the Ballot, the most famous of which is the one that removed former Governor Davis from office, there is little doubt the people will have an opportunity to end Legislative control of redistricting political district boundaries.

LETTERS TO THE LEAGUE

We seek “Letters to the League” from Members concerning projects and issues on which we are working, along with recommendations on those we should look at. Letters may be edited and republished in any format, primarily in the interest of available space. Send letters, faxes, or e-mail to the Sacramento County Taxpayers League. Our e-mail is sactaxleague@prodigy.net; our telephone number is (916) 921-5991. Our fax number is (916) 567-1279. And our address is:
Sacramento County Taxpayers League
1804 Tribute Road, Suite 207
Sacramento, CA 95815.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE

Annual Dinner - The League is pleased to have Assemblymember Dave Jones (9th Assembly District) as the Keynote Speaker for its 46th Annual Meeting.

Assemblymember Jones has several legislative accomplishments during his two-year term, and has shown he is a real advocate for the people.

Cityhood - As you have read recently, the Arden Arcade area is the latest County neighborhood to want to incorporate as its own city. The League will be watching this closely as it impacts the entire region, especially with regard to a potential loss of sales tax base larger the total reduced overhead. One of the biggest concerns is, how will Arden Arcade, or any of the small cities, pay for their municipal services if the State enters into an economic slowdown that reduces sales revenue?

It makes some sense for Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, and Elk Grove to be their own cities, given the distance; but not Arden Arcade. It makes more geographical sense for Arden Arcade to join a city than to become a city.

Another big concern is the number of overlapping municipal services in one County that may or may not meet the current need of residents. The continued expansion of new cities can only hurt the County in the long run.

Car Dealer Subsidy - Recent articles in The Bee have certainly caught the League's attention. The County Supervisors $1 million ten year subsidy to be provided to Daugherty Chevrolet is really raising some red flags. What is particularly is that in a February 19th Bee article. Dan Walters stated that the proposed Natomas auto mall project had collapsed. This raises the question: Why does Daugherty need County money if he's not going anywhere?

Bob Blymyer

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