Town Will Receive $16,500,000 in New Cash From Feds & Developers; Wants More From Residents
Updated: 5 days ago
The town will receive $16,511,700 in new, unencumbered money from the federal government and from Palos Colorados:
$2,587,700 in federal funds to reimburse the town almost 90% for the sinkhole repair
$2,924,000 from the feds to reimburse the town almost 90% for the Canyon Bridge replacement (and an amount unknown from EBMUD, which owns the landslide area that knocked it out)
$11,000,000 in Palos Colorados settlement payments
Despite the town's frequent statement, "we don't really know when or if we will receive these funds," almost $2,500,000 will be arriving (or already has arrived) in March with the balance of all federal funds fully expected beginning in July 2018 or soon thereafter (see the Town’s 2017–18 Mid-Year Budget Review (PDF), pp. 2–3).
Despite these known receipts of over $16.5MM that are 2x the town’s annual budget, the town nonetheless retains its "declaration of fiscal emergency" and still wants residents to pay a new storm drain tax of $800,000 per year, forever.
Moreover, the proposed storm drain tax has 30%-40% contingencies built-in, duplicates existing taxes already being paid (articles existing clean-water tax spendingand storm drain project priority analysis), and double-dips on specific projects for which it already has secured grant money but still wants 100% of it from residents (article duplicate-tax analysis).
As mentioned in Moraga’s à-la-carte basic-services article, Moraga has changed from a minimal government town to one where necessities like roads (and now storm drains) have become a la carte choices.
The haste to enact a storm drain tax (fee) with the pretext of a fiscal emergency, in the context of all this money being received, makes little sense.
