EscInd: Action Plan for April 29, 2024
Welcome to Escondido Indivisible’s action plan for the week of April 29, 2024! Pick an action or two and commit yourself to doing them. As President Obama said in his farewell speech: Believe in your ability to bring change. Show up, dive in, stay at it.
Events
- Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 10:00 AM: San Diego County Board of Supervisors Regular Meeting at Board Of Supervisors North Chamber Room 310, 1600 Pacific Highway, Room 402, San Diego, CA 92101. Agenda includes Item #29 to adopt a resolution and "advocate for regulatory, budgetary, and legislative efforts to strengthen access to abortion medication". Live broadcast of the meeting will be at sandiegocounty.gov here. Public comments may be made via eComment service or via email to publiccomment@sdcounty.ca.gov. See Voice Your Opinion.
- Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 4:00 PM: Escondido City Council Special Meeting at City Hall Council Chambers, 201 North Broadway, Escondido, CA 92025. Agenda includes Item #1 on Local Emergency Proclamation and Approval of Emergency Repair of Land Outfall Pipeline Leak. Live broadcast of the meeting will be at escondido.org here. Public comments may be made via Public Comment Form.
Future Events
- Wednesday, May 8, 2024, 5:00 PM: Escondido City Council Meeting at City Hall Council Chambers, 201 North Broadway, Escondido, CA 92025. Live broadcast of the meeting will be at escondido.org here. Public comments may be made via Public Comment Form.
- Thursday, May 9, 2024, 3:00 PM: Escondido Library Board of Trustees Meeting at City Hall Council Chambers, 201 North Broadway, Escondido, CA 92025. Live broadcast of the meeting will be at escondido.org here. Public comments may be made via Public Comment Form. Audio recordings of previous LBoT meetings are available at escondido.org here.
Actions
Election 2024
- Plan to vote. The Presidential Election will be on November 5, 2024 which will be ~191 days from now. Register to vote if you’re eligible to vote, check your voter registration, sign-up to track your mail ballot and plan to vote. Information is not available yet, but our Escondido municipal election will include District 3 and 4.
- Read-up on Meadows, Giuliani, 11 'fake electors' face charges in Arizona and At hush-money trial, ex-tabloid publisher Pecker details scheme to aid Trump. See Tracking the criminal and civil cases against Donald Trump, Tracking the Trump criminal cases and Tracking Donald Trump's indictments.
- Read-up on Trump immunity case suggests new role for supreme court: kingmaker, The Supreme Court is likely to place Donald Trump above the law in its immunity case, Supreme Court appears skeptical of blanket immunity for a former president and Justice Clarence Thomas chooses not to recuse himself from another January 6-related case.
- #TBT: Read-up on Ginni Thomas Urged Arizona Lawmakers to Overturn 2020 Election, Ginni Thomas emails show she urged Wisconsin lawmakers to oveturn 2020 election, What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement and A guide to the friends and patrons of Clarence and Ginni Thomas.
Escondido City
- Budget In Brief: Escondido has been facing budget deficits for the past several years (where our projected revenue is not meeting our budgeted expenses) and is projected to continue facing around $10 millions deficits for the next 5 years and increasing to $23 millions by 2036.
To address the recent deficits, the city had explored increasing the sales tax rate. In 2022, the city ballot measure for a 3/4 cent increase failed by only 447 votes (1.2%).
But a citizen's initiative is being collected to put another measure on the ballot to raise the sales tax by one cent for the next 20 years.
See Escondido’s Budget Deficit Has Taken a Toll on the City That May Take Years to Correct.
- Sales Tax In Brief: Escondido has a 7.75% sales tax rate where for each $7.75 collected, $6 goes to the State, $0.50 goes to Transnet, $0.25 goes to the County and $1 goes to Escondido. If the citizen's initiative is successfully, then our sales tax rate would be raised to 8.75% with $2 going to the City for every $8.75 collected.
Sales tax revenue contributed around 39% of the city general fund revenue. From the total general fund, around 41% goes to the Police Department, 24% Fire, 10% Public Works, 8% Community Services, 6% Community Development and 10% all other expenses.
- Sign the Citizen's Initiative to raise the sales tax by one cent for the next 20 years. A reader has informed us that signatures from registered votes are being gathered at Escondido Farmers’ Market on Tuesdays, 2:30 pm to sunset located at Heritage Garden Park at Juniper Street between Grand Ave and Valley Parkway. 7,748 signatures are needed and be collected in 180 days (so by July-ish) to qualify for the upcoming election. See Escondido resident coalition launches ballot initiative to raise sales tax and Escondido citizens pushing to place 1-cent sales tax hike on the ballot.
- Complete 2024 Community Survey (15 to 30 minutes) which asks what priorities do we find important and think that the city should focuses on. The survey also asks our thoughts on a local cannabis business city measure (which the city is exploring for possible tax revenues), the one-cent sales tax citizen initiative and an infrastructure half-cent county sales tax citizen measure.
A few notes:
- If both the one-cent city sales tax and half-cent county sales tax measures are successfully, Escondido's sales tax rate would be 9.25% with $1 going to Transnet and $2 to the City for every $9.25 collected.
- In similar past surveys, the city concluded that the number 1 priority was addressing homelessness and the 2nd priority was improving public safety and policing services so it's important to add our voices about how community-based programs & services are also important priorities, especially considering how the city recently adopted a “public safety-first” approach to addressing homelessness (which made the city's number 1 and 2 priorities essentially be public safety).
- Similarly, when Escondido sought "cost-saving measures" or to "balance the budget" in the past, they outsourced our public library operations in 2017 to an out-of-state private company, Library Systems and Services, and closed our East Library Branch in 2011, for example, when these programs are a small percentage of our budget. Now, our arts center may be facing similar situations: Escondido Arts Center Could Be Getting New Management.
- In-Related News: read-up on With homelessness on the rise, the Supreme Court weighs bans on sleeping outdoors, Supreme Court weighs upending homeless protections, Supreme Court appears open to city's crackdown on homelessness and North County Report: Cash to Clear Encampments Comes with Strings Attached.
Escondido Indivisible is a grassroots group dedicated to affecting changes in our local community. Our website is at EscondidoIndivisible.com. Send us links and comments at EscondidoIndivisible50@gmail.com. And feel free to forward our newsletter to interested parties! If you were forwarded this letter, you can subscribe here, and check the archive here.