Here is a plan: Keep the library open, fix the streets, put more cops on the streets and reduce fire response time. How, you ask, since this requires money?
First, increase sales tax revenues by using the shopping areas of this city. Doesn't anyone realize how many Venturans shop in Oxnard? Help Walmart open on Victoria Avenue, get the area north of the mall back on the sales tax rolls, fill the old Good Guys store. Ventura is losing money because we are slow to fill these stores. It should not take years.
Second, cut costs. The city cut $11 million, but it has more to do. Pensions are out of control and not affordable. The city is going down the road of General Motors and Vallejo. The state will start paying Ventura back this year's money with interest. The council must use it wisely.
Until the council increases revenues (sales taxes) and cuts costs (pensions), it should not be asking us to pay more. Deal with revenues and pensions, and then we can talk about increasing my taxes by $400 per year for a family of five.
Vote no on Measure A this year. Perhaps it will be needed in the future, but the city has not done enough yet to truly need it!
-- John Brooke, Ventura