Leaders from cities around San Diego County met today to discuss how they can keep the state government from borrowing property tax revenue and other local funds to fill the budget hole in Sacramento.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders began the meeting of area leaders by saying he doesn’t see the state’s action as borrowing, but as stealing. He says the city of San Diego could lose $36 million in property taxes and another $24 million in sales taxes to California. He says lawmakers in Sacramento are in such a deep mess they can’t figure out what’s going on.
“They continue to say it’s borrowing. They’re supposed to pay that back, or have to pay it back by the Constitution within three years. That’s what they’ve told us. And when we ask them how they propose to do that they say they don’t know,” he says
Sanders says his impression is the city’s money is as good as gone. The Governor will have to declare a severe fiscal hardship in order to take local money. That requires a 2/3 vote in the state legislature.
