Mayor says utility tax in Calabasas most certainly doesn’t pay for frills

Mayor says utility tax in Calabasas most certainly doesn’t pay for frills

Each year Calabasas presents a "State of the City" report to citizens that lets them know just how their city has provided for their safety and services. I would like to invite the editorial staff of The Acorn to join us on Wed., Jan. 29 at city hall to more fully understand what our citizens already know about the quality of life they enjoy in Calabasas.

In The Acorn’s last editorial, you suggest that people base their local city utility tax decision on whether there are "frills" in city government. It is odd that tax protesters usually cry that tax money should be spent "locally." Well, a small city is as local as you get!

Your city has the most immediate, direct effect on your needs.

Examples:

•A fire on the hill behind your house breaks out. You call the fire department. Your city pays for it.

•A local shop is robbed. The sheriff’s department is called. Your city pays for it.

•The wind blows a tree down on the sidewalk in front of your house. You call. The city pays for its removal.

•You work, so your 8-year-old has after-school care at the park. The city provides that program and the park.

•Traffic at the high school grows. A signal is put up to make it safer. Your city pays for it.

•You really want to read a particular book. You borrow it from the library. Your city pays for it.

•Calabasas streets are safe—without potholes. Your city pays for it.

A frill is too often seen as the service you don’t need, but that someone else, not you, needs.

So, I respectfully ask you, is the frill the slide a 5-year-old plays on at the park? Is it the Dial-a-Ride a senior takes to his doctor’s appointment? Is it the street repair on the other neighbor’s block? Is it the care of plantings along the streets that increase everyone’s property values? Or is it the librarian who helped a teenager find information for his school report?

Your city is about people and those everyday things that keep life a bit more safe and comfortable. The current small utility tax pays for 18 percent of all of the city services. Should we really nit pick about whose needs are frills? We all, collectively, lose out if what you want has to be cut away.

Lesley Devine, Mayor

City of Calabasas