The Antelope Valley Times

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Supervisors place parks parcel tax on November ballot

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Tax on ballotLOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to put a measure on the November ballot that would levy a one-and-a-half cent per square foot parcel tax on properties countywide to fund parks development and maintenance.

If approved by voters, the parcel tax is estimated to raise roughly $95 million annually. The annual tax bill for a 1,500-square-foot house would be $22.50.

Supervisor Hilda Solis, who recommended pushing the measure forward, said it was a small price to pay.

“We’re not asking for a lot,” Solis said. “We’re being very cautious about the taxpayers.”

The board’s vote was 3-1. Supervisor Don Knabe voted against the measure because a sunset clause that would end the tax in 35 years was eliminated. Supervisor Michael Antonovich was absent for the vote.

The Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks, Open Space, Beaches, Rivers and Water Conservation Measure would replace funding under Proposition A, first passed more than 20 years ago. The last of that Proposition A funding is set to expire in 2019.

Solis pointed out that the new measure seeks to raise only about $10 million more than the original proposition.

The Department of Parks and Recreation had also considered a 3-cent tax. Solis said sponsors opted for the lower amount out of conservatism, though polling found no statistically significant difference in support for the two tax rates, according to board documents.

Voters are expected to consider several revenue-generating measures in November, including the Measure R half-cent sales tax for transportation and a statewide measure to renew income tax increases to fund education. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is also pressing for another countywide parcel tax to fight homelessness.

In response to a comment by Solis that the parks tax amounts to less than one Starbucks latte each month, Knabe said voters would consider all the measures together.

“(That’s) not just one latte, it’s an entire Starbucks franchise,” Knabe said.

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who co-authored Solis’ motion, took a different perspective.

“This is like walking into a Starbucks … and getting anything you want for free, forever,” Kuehl said. “Because the parks are free, the beaches are free.”

In 2014, the board tried to replace Proposition A funding with Measure P, which fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage, with 62.8 percent in favor.

At the time, Ridley-Thomas, who represents the Second District, had pressed for more dollars to be allocated to underserved areas.

“The First District was short-changed,” Solis said Tuesday of the allocation under Measure P.

The new measure has a greater needs-based component, though 50 percent of dollars raised will go back to the communities where they were raised.

Advocates said parks are about more than play, citing studies that green space can boost health and help keep neighborhoods safe.

The parks assessment found that about 51 percent of county residents do not live within a 10-minute walk of a park. The incidence of health problems like asthma, diabetes and heart disease is higher in park-poor communities, said Cynthia Harding, interim director of the county’s public health department.

“Our communities are in dire need of parks,” one single mother told the board, saying parks programs were critical for families who can’t afford private lessons and classes for their children.

Priorities for spending the money — should the measure pass — have been set based on meetings with residents from 188 study areas aimed at identifying each community’s top 10 parks projects. Thirty-five percent of funds will be tagged to pay for those projects.

Another 15 percent will be used to fund parks maintenance in the communities where taxes were levied. Thirteen percent will go to high-needs communities.

Another 13 percent will be used for environmentally-oriented projects, including beach and waterway clean-up; with 13 percent more for regional trail and accessibility projects that connect urban areas to nature.

The balance will go to related job training for youth and veterans and to administrative costs.

Even if the measure passes, the county will only have a fraction of the money needed to complete the $8.8 billion in priority projects identified by the area study groups and another $12 billion in deferred maintenance.

A two-thirds majority of November voters is required for passage. Pollsters working on behalf of the county government found 69 percent of likely voters were in favor, a number that increased to 75 percent once those polled learned more about the parks measure.

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Filed Under: Politics

42 comments for "Supervisors place parks parcel tax on November ballot"

  1. I don’t understand how it could be legal to put a measure on the ballot for a tax paid by property owners, but non-property-owners also get to vote. We have the same thing going on here in Trinity County, CA; property owners must pay $118 per year to keep our hospital and emergency room open, yet everyone gets to vote. It’s criminal at beat, and pure greed at the worst.

  2. Do what they do in the San Fernando Valley. There are AA and NA meetings and recovery homes. There are so many AA and NA meetings for homeless to get on the right track instead of hurting people who are barely scraping by. Most of the homeless, and believe me I have trouble shot this by visiting, speaking to homeless and so forth and trying to help them: They mostly drink and use drugs at a very high expense! So, since disabled vets are getting much more than me in the way of Disabled vet pay have to spent their checks on expensive drugs, it is not fair to me or thousands of others, that we should have to spend more money on taxes when we already pay the highest sales tax in the country, have so many bills and debts compared to what we get, and have not paid it off, or have sick relations living off of nothing with needs to care for and so forth! It JUST IS NOT FAIR NOR GOD LIKE TO OVERCHARGE people on taxes! Force and compel most of the homeless to attend daily AA and NA meetings which are fully self supporting, that is they are only supported by drug addicts and alcoholics and never take donations outside of their own community! Those meetings are free and you donate only if you can. After a few months of attending meetings the homeless will find a new spirituality and only after staying sober and working a program and will most likely do something more efficient with their lives, such as help others get clean and sober, get work, go to college and get a high degree, and start cleaning up instead of messing up. Also, as for mental illness. They belong in mental health hospitals or facilities and not in an open apt complex. They are ill and already the Federal Government will easily help them a bit by paying the Medi Cal for them to live in a facility and get three meals a day, plus psychiatric help. We don’t need to lift taxes to do this or pawn off the issue to homeowners, especially those homeowners who can barely afford to pay their debts as it is! I can see if you want to charge Beverly Hills but people in Lancaster or at least 3/4s of them or elderly, disabled, making very low wages and are in debt, paying off cars, insurance, and taking care of family. In the Valley and elsewhere you can send those alcoholics and drug addicts to facilities and it will be covered under medical laws without raising taxes! Try Tarzana Treatment Center and so forth. There are troves of hospitals for alcoholics and drug addicts to stay in and recover in, but maybe not in Lancaster. Give them a dollar bus pass and the address and that is all they need: A Recovery program! With vets: They get a really hefty check compared to a lot of people but spend it on drugs and alcohol, fooling around and wasting it. Instead, take their checks and that will pay for a homeless shelter and take the money out first for their food, stay, and so forth, so this way, you can help them get off the drugs, which is costly and wasteful! Then, take a visit to maybe Chandler Blvd. in North Hollywood, CA. to visit the Chandler Men’s recovery house and talk to the users who live outside across the street to see how they get so much money to buy alcohol and drugs everyday of their lives and see if they are willing & ready to give it up. The issue is they don’t want to give it up and until they do you can’t force a person to get honestly clean and sober! They will hit you, maybe rob you, and you may wonder where they got the monies to buy expensive guns or weapons too (some). Don’t! Some get more money than your Walt Mart employees! Visit skid row and meet them first hand: See their ongoing liquor all day. If I could afford liquor all day, I’d be out of money as well. Don’t forget half the night as well. I wouldn’t buy more than one bottle of wine every four years or so and for only guests. That’s how much I have to spare on a habit. Talk to them and offer them help. See if they care or if they go to the homeless shelter. I’ve offered them shelters at found shelters and they won’t go. They enjoy being free to use and exploit drugs or alcohol. They don’t want watching them over their shoulders cause they are addicted. You can only help them when the grace of god helps them. If you can’t do it through the church, temple, or some other divine way, you as a human cannot do it! I would say about 95% of the homeless are in this sort of situation, that is addiction of some sort but won’t tell you. The other are either mentally ill or just broke, but the broke usually will quickly find work or a way to earn their keep or at least obtain a degree, unless they are disabled with multiple injuries and issues that keeps them going to doctors! That will be a rarity though.

  3. Why not charge a nominal $2.00 day use fee for people wanting to go to Apollo Park, Devil’s Punchbowl, or other local county parks, similar to what the National Parks Service does, but on a smaller scale? I am sure people would pay it. Most county parks are gated off and installing a guard and fee collection unit wouldn’t be that difficult. If the patrons of county parks ended up paying for them, it would be a win-win for everyone!

      • $2.00 was just a number I threw out. Even asking $4.00 for a single carload of 4 or 5 people still isn’t a lot to pay. And, it would be worth it! The people who use the parks the most would get to see where their money goes. Lots of people from Kern County use Apollo Park, so the county would get money coming in from the outside too!

        • Point is that if you are looking for ways to increase funding and you opt for a method that carries a substantial increase in costs along with it you need to increase the funding a lot more. One benefit of a parcel tax is that the entire apparatus for collecting it is already in place, so all that gets collected goes directly to purpose. To set up this use fee approach to funding involves a lot of initial expense and a lot of ongoing expense that has to be covered before anything can be directed to purpose.

          Plus, despite the outcries from people like Joe, the primary beneficiaries of improved parks are property owners, who see increases in property values. There is really no improvement in “fairness” in targeting the cost of the parks on the people who use them, since property owners are the ones who benefit financially. The biggest financial benefits go to owners of rental property, who may be absentee owners who would never pay a dime in a use fee system.

          Drawing funding from people who come from outside the county to use the parks is certainly worth considering though.

    • Matt, because that would be fair to everyone.as most people know, dems dont look at fairness for all.just stick it to the taxpayer.it should be put on the ballot, but only homeowners get to vote on it, since thats the only ones it impacts.apt, renters, section 8, boyfriends who live and feed off of their girlfriends townhomes, should be excluded from voting on it.

  4. “We’re not asking for a lot,” Solis said. “We’re being very cautious about the taxpayers.”

    The County may not be “asking for a lot”, but they don’t understand that they are just one of many government entities asking for something.

    The County wants a tax on property, the city of Lancaster wants a tax on property, the city of Palmdale wants another bond, the state always wants to tax something it seems.

    It ends up being “Death by a Thousand Cuts” for the taxpayer, eventually. I say this as a left-of-center registered Democrat, by the way.

  5. OMG! The AV sure is filled with a bunch of ignorant people. Just look at some of these postings. Out of the mouths of idiots!

  6. so they want more cash. Ok show us the books. We want an audit of all taxes collected in the AV and how little of those taxes are actually used in our valley. Yep tell us it’s raining and pee on our leg again.

    • The county budget isn’t a secret, on either the spending or the collection side.

      Does the AV get shafted by the county? Probably. Who is supposed to be keeping that from happening? Well, we have a voice on the board of supervisors and we let him get reelected EIGHT times while we were being shafted, so who’s fault is that?

      Basically, what we have here is the same thing we get from the state. Our local Republican good old boys promote one of their own to represent us. That token Republican goes to the democrat controlled board or legislature and is told “go wait at the kids table while we decide what to do, then you can come back and cough up your meaningless vote of opposition.” And when they say “hey, this isn’t really fair to the people I represent” the answer is “too bad, but maybe they will figure it out and quit sending us shills like you.” Unfortunately, we never seem to figure it out.

      • I think that the County Board of Supervisors needs to be reconfigured. We, in the Antelope Valley, do not share the same concerns or issues as people in Pasadena, LaCanada-Flintridge or Glendale, yet, we are lumped in with them and because they have more clout and are closer to Downtown L.A., their voices get heard while we — being geographically stranded on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains — are ignored. There needs to be a sixth district that takes in all of the Antelope Valley, Acton, Agua Dulce and maybe Santa Clarita.

        • There was a recent change in state law…proposed? maybe passed? Not sure…

          Anyway, it was intended to allow certain specific counties to expand from a five seat board to seven, and LA County was one of them. Don’t know when it goes into effect.

  7. AV Leaders failed us All again. Our County Supervisor Antonovich wasn’t even there to fight for us. Palmdale and Lancaster wasn’t even there to fight for their citizens. AV paid $150 Million into the Park District from the ’92 &’96 Prop A Park Measures and AV received only $33 million in projects. Now even worse News because of the way the County did the park assessment report, AV is considered Park rich because they added schools that are closed to the public and Parks not developed yet in assessment report. So AV will score low for Park competitive grant Project funding. AV Leaders failed us ALL again!

  8. It’s a “parcel tax””, but it’s levied based on the size of your house? I’m in favor of parks, and I think we could spend more on them, but I want to be sure that it just applied to my house, not the whole parcel.

    • It’s based on square footage of building, not the whole property. Don’t know why they use the term “parcel tax” when it does seem like “improvement tax” would be more accurate, but clarity is a lot to ask.

  9. This plus the homeless shelter/magnet, plus another bait and switch from the college, – why should only property owners pay for all these schemes and scams. Will property owners be using the homeless shelter more than renters? Why should they pay for it exclusively then? Do property owners use parks more then others?

    As to the argument that parks increase property values – wrong! They are places for druggies, gang bangers, and bums to hang out. Having one in the neighborhood lowers property values.

    Vote NO on all proposed taxes!

    • I thought the gov guaranteed no tax hikes for homeowners! They are already charging way and beyond the legal bond price. Also, lots of the homeless get more monies than those who live in homes, including vets, who get a minimum of $1700.00 pr month. The issue is is that some people like to spend their funds on crack, alcohol, and other drug use! I tried to help the homeless and found out his family had a huge million dollar house in Granada Hills with space for him and he ended up knocking me out, putting me in hospital after I fed him & bought him some clothes! I’m disabled and don’t want to help homeless who won’t help themselves! I don’t have enough for taxes w/ my income as is and it is way above the 1% legal mark. Besides, AA and NA are free, self supporting programs (if they attended) that do not seek taxpayer monies at all. There are millions of people who get clean on those programs & they don’t need to overcharge homeowners for the drinking & drug problems! Those programs have recover houses allover the USA and local governments don’t have to break their promise & raise taxes so they can get into these recover live in homes! They just don’t want to get in and want to keep drinking & using drugs and alcohol is the issue! Also, there is a small minority who have mental illnesses and just throwing them into an apt is not the answer; they need mental health hospitals and homes fully staffed, which are available allover California and Medical will already pay for those live in situations without raising local housing taxes! This is a huge lie!

  10. LIKE IT OR NOT YOU WILL BE TAXED WHOEVER OPPOSES THE TAX SHOULD BE ARRESTED FOR TREASON TOU OUR COUNTRY YOU MUAT RESPECT OUR LEADERS AND POLITICIANS OR ELSE FACE BEING ARRESTED AND CHARGED FOR TREASON

  11. This infuriates me. I am disabled, can’t afford enough for regular dietary foodstuff, have loads of bills, serviced America when 911 hit, while the US government still owes me monies for services that they have not paid. I barely have enough to get by! I couldn’t even afford an air conditioner or heater when in need during the coldest and hottest days of the year. So why do these arrogant ignorant so called leaders decide that I am supposed to pay more taxes for parks and to take care of more homeless, mentally ill, or those on drugs and alcohol through the other tax proposal hike that targets homeowners!? You have a god damned nerve to pawn everyone’s problems onto homeowners, especially those who are already struggling with either too little pay, seniors who can barely afford to keep up on a regular diet, let alone pay their own needed bills, disabled, who’s monthly income cannot barely afford a cheap rental in a slum area by a slumlord of course and who have pain and lots of doctors to contend with at times! Why don’t you go after those with the money, such as very high wage earners, movie stars and rock stars, Time Warner, Walt Mart, McDonalds and huge corporations that reside in those areas and rake in huge fortunes by paying low wages and selling massive amounts of products instead of homeowners?

    The prop taxes in Lancaster are already too high and they are charging fees way over the bond laws while corporations, such as Walt Mart and fast food locals continuously increase their profits!

    Also, America is spending an atrocious amount of money on defense and offense and way too much to contractors who overcharge by the billions at the cost to the American tax payer. We have colonized and are sitting in 700 world-wide locations, which DOES NOT stop terrorism, obviously, overpaying for these int’l ventures, spending about two billion dollars on EACH war fighter jet and overspending on national security; whereas, so many dummies don’t even stop terrorists even when they have them in plain site in the palm of their hands!

    Why don’t you cut there, and stop pawning off the nation’s problems onto impoverished homeowners, poor or underprivileged homeowners who can barely get by, let alone have to take care of all the rest of your national issues and problems, including your drug addicts and drunks who, although receive checks monthly, vets disability pay, still use it for crack, drugs and drink, instead of taking care of bills and logical assessments?

    Do us a favor and do the logical route: Since America is sitting in 700 world locations paying unnecessary employees to sit and play cards all day and much of the time, such as in Germany, Japan, and many other locals, just close some, or make them smaller, which should help increase budget to the tune of about 3 trillion per annum or thereabouts, depending on how small your make the colonies or “forts” on those locals, and also, I don’t really believe we need to keep policing Afghanistan. I’ve talked to soldiers and they told me that they mostly sit around playing cards up there much of the time, for there is nothing else to do but to play cards. How much are we paying each soldier? We have not stopped the influx of unworthy immigrants, so what is the sense just sitting there in Afghanistan? That is costing the US a lot of monies.

    Use that money instead for your parks and homeless! Since you are going to stop arresting people for being mentally ill as well, which can cost minimum of 40k a year to about 150k a year to house a prisoner, depending on the health condition of said prisoner, you are already saving tons of money. STOP ARRESTING PEOPLE SIMPLY FOR BEING HOMELESS. This new ethic could and should save LA County about 100 million a year, depending on the health conditions of each prisoner and instead, sending some who need it to twelve step programs, 12 step recovery housing, mental health care facilities that really care about patients instead of punish them, and to low cost apartments instead of those high priced rentals that barely anyone with a middle class income can afford due to the costs of everything from transpo, health insurance, car insurance, clothing, food, and the high cost of rents.

    We already have these programs and we have the Salvation Army programs, which house the homeless, give them churches to pray in, bed, food, showers, shelter but a huge host of them do not want to stay, because they are alcoholics, very ill, and just are not blessed nor saved, and are in deep in the disease of addiction and cannot seem to get out! I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen some just leave when offered secure shelter, including 3 meals a day, clean bed, clean clothing, a group of caring people to talk with and help them find a better way; they take off, go back on the streets, want to drink instead and just roam! Instead of putting them in a prison bed (costs to run a court day for one homeless person, about 10k or thereabouts, depending on if there is a jury involved or not…rock bottom of the cost of a court hearing for one homeless person is about 7k). Sweep them instead to a homeless shelter, which they may leave from either way. Do you want to spend ten thousand dollars for one court hearing for a mentally disabled person, someone who maybe has schizophrenia, and who was thrown out onto the street by a man called President Reagan who did not believe in mental health facilities? Do you want to spend ten grand for just one court hearing for a regular homeless person, who lives off of heroine or crank, drinks to pass the time and who is invested into a drug that has taken over his life and who just won’t get it, unless god gets to him? Why not just bring him on over to a drug addiction hospital and men’s recovery house already existing all over the Los Angeles area in many locations? Many of the 12 step programs are self supporting. Much of it is not paid for by taxpayers what so ever, but by those who are or who have been addicted! They run meetings all day, and everyone donates, at each meeting, every day! This is how they exist, pay for rents, coffee, literature, and no one is an employee, that is everyone is a volunteer working on his/her own recovery. So the program works much of the time with most people!

    The other issue is that LA County is paying a minimum of 20 billion per year and upwards for illegal immigrants. California has a very open ethic concerning this. Many are housed, homes, given welfare, food stamps, and many have disability checks, whether citizens or not! They get all the medical care they need most of the time. In Los Angeles you will find hospitals filled with them, from having kids, to getting needed surgeries and emergency care. The County has a bad health system ethic though, which makes the cost of health care much higher to taxpayers. You see, the system as it is will not allow them to seek special care from primary doctors when and if they need it, so they go to hospitals and fill hospital halls and rooms instead. Primary care doctors are not available much of the time because of long wait periods and 3 month waiting periods. They cannot wait to see if their baby has a severe flu or cold though and don’t know if that pain is something worse than it may be. The cost of an ER room visit can exceed 2500 dollars just for a short visit. Typically it can cost minimum of 500 dollars. It is more expensive! Going to a primary care can maybe cost $75.00 and even less in certain offices if you are poor. OK, the medi-cal system will cover these costs, but the doctors are tightly restricted in the “network” that is they cannot just take their medical card and run to another doctor for help at a cost of maybe $64.00 instead of $500.00 spent at the ER in a hospital! Now, how much do you think this is costing per year to Los Angeles tax payers? You figure it out! Also, because of the teeth cuts done by Schwartzenegger supported by the Brown regime, there are a lot of hospital ER visits because of severe teeth problems instead. Weigh the differences in costs. Paying for an ER visit for an abscess and antibiotics given by an ER specialist or simply paying for a dentist visit who can take care of the abscess. Lots of adults get abscesses though and many cannot afford to take care of the problem at all. It’s so painful, more painful than you can imagine as well. If not taken care of, an abscess can go to the brain and the patient can end up in the ER needing a brain surgeon and provenly this has taken place! A boy died cause his mother could not afford to take care of his abscess prior to the regulations that now cover all children! What about adults though? Why are adults, who do most of the paying for everything left out of the health care system when it comes to your teeth? If some real accounting was done on the costs of tooth related ER visits vs the cost of just sending them for dental care was done, I am almost certain that covering dental care would win in the long run.

    Now take, our defense system. No one votes on paying for another fancy war plane at the cost of 2 – 2.5 billion dollars each. Los Angeles county officials feel that war and building war weapons is more important than the lives of its own residents. The pain and suffering of people do not matter as much as building more fancy war machinery and overpaying contractors. The lopsided imbalance of putting more weight on defense and war vs human beings, local happiness and health, well being, sustainability, good jobs and businesses for everyone takes second place to the National Military Industrial Complex going on. War and defense are NOT MORE IMPORTANT AT ALL! In fact, the fifty thousand paid security professionals and more, excluding police and lower level security did not do a thing to prevent the 911 attacks! Only a few good people actually stopped a trove of world terrorists, domestic invasions, local terrorism and that was a small group of people who did the work!

    Then, you have a police issue. I’ve seen it all too often. Police working allover Los Angeles with nothing better to do than to hand out “fake tickets” to innocents, harass women and girls, stop for a drink or a local strip club, stop people for no reason other than perverting the idea of justice and for power moguling, and NOT TAKING ACTION when real events do occur. We have much unneeded police hovering and going around, getting paid salaries that taxpayers pay for. Not all are needed nor even good for the jobs they inhabit! We see nationally, police act like criminals, do harm to innocents, kill people when they don’t need to, and act like bullies when they should instead act like service people intent on keeping the peace and logical reasonable people who act with care and caution. We have seen them spend our money and time arresting tiny children for “prostitution”, such as the little girl under ten years old arrested for being a victim of a sex traffic ring. They spend an insurmountable amount of money on our court system and jail system instead of helping people the way they need.

    I can go on, as to how you can gain monies for your homeless and your parks instead of pounding out blood out of homeowners, most in which can barely afford to maintain their own homes!

    • YOUR JUST JEALOUS OF OTHER PEOPLE, STOP WHININH AND PUT UP WITH IT IF YOU DONT LIKE HOW THIS GREAT COUNTRY IS TREAING YOU YOU CAN RELOCATED SOMEWHERE ELSE NOBODY IS KEEPING YOU HERE MANDATORY IM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING VETS CRY ABOUT EVERYTHING LIKE IF THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING

      • Randy, I’m not a vet! But, it is because of me you are certainly free from Bin Laden and hundreds of others! The only issue is they owe me money still on top of that! Do you want to overpay and go into starvation and not have enough for your food table or family because a drug addict or drunk doesn’t want to give up his/hers drugs and nursing bottle of liquor? I hear all of you whining and raking in monies while people like me spent over a decade wiping all your god damn tables and communities clean of terrorists without even a single dime in recompense! Take your lousy attitude and you go down to skid row yourself and see if you can get by without being punched, robbed, held up with an expensive gun, or the like and see if you want to pay for all their frilly luxuries, such as crack at 900 dollars a month, five bottles of wine at about 40 dollars per day, free meals and homeowners tax so they can stay in a luxury apt and use their drugs and alcohol instead. I’ve already tried to help some and all they do is punch, try to steal, try to break into your place, complain, and be ungrateful! In fact I know one who was not only getting benefits and a free hotel to live in but he used all his monies to sit and smoke crack all day instead of giving his 2 year old little girl. Tell me if you want to keep giving someone like that who could care less about your safety, well being, or future and tells you to go to hell or punches you out for trying to give them some food! I’ve been there and no thank you! I don’t and can’t use the extra cost right now. I have a right to my opinion and I don’t respect leaders who don’t respect their own great heroes either! I don’t worship so called leaders! I don’t need to falsely patronize a rich wealthy man who wants to take my last dime trying to give a drunk more alcohol or trying to wipe me out of nutrition. That leader has not fought terrorists and is busy counting his profits and has had it real easy compared to some people I know! Don’t ever ask me to respect or worship any politician! They are here to serve our needs, not to overcharge and wipe us clean as they seem to want to do or send us to war for profits. Do your research and stop acting like a sorrow-filled coward who has no real education nor experience except to kiss the toes of a politician. I won this war mostly not by licking the toes of god damned men, but by honoring my own honesty and policies and not respecting any man, but by respecting my love for my country and god. No man should be worshipped ever and he cannot have my money when I need it for my own needs and until that politician pays me for my long years of services! I’ve seen all these rich wealthy men sit around while people like me work themselves into sickness tracking your god damned terrorists. Maybe you’d like to do that instead of thinking only of your paycheck everyday? Howz about some volunteer work out of you instead of mouthing good people off?

  12. How about the Board of Supervisors pays it out of their salary! Enough with the nickel and dime taxes. ONLY $22, please. Add in all of the other taxes we are hit with and it is thousands!

    • If you can’t afford your property tax you can always move to a less expensive house. There are plenty of homes in Lancaster that don’t carry property tax bills of “thousands.” Plenty in Palmdale as well. LOTS of them in the rural areas. Heck, even down in Snotville…errrrr…Santa Clarita…you can find some that aren’t much above a couple thousand.

      • Tim is correct. Take a townhome for example. It’s like a halfway point between apartment and a real house. They are inexpensive and probably have property taxes under $2000 a year.

        • But of course not very useful for those who need square footage to impress their wife.

  13. Once again, hard-working home/property owners are being asked to pay for the places that druggies, dealers, criminals, the shiftless, etc., go to hang out and/or commit crimes. Our parks aren’t even a safe place for families to go and enjoy themselves anymore. I’ve lived in the Antelope Valley for almost 50 years, and the parks used to be a lot of fun to go to when I was a child. How things have changed, and not for the better! This in addition to a new tax they want the hard-working home/property owners to pay in order to build another homeless shelter (amongst other things). When does it stop? We are being taxed right out of California. Some day, the only people who will be living in California will be the poor and the rich. Please vote “NO” on all of these new taxes they want us to pay!!!

    • In your “I hate people who go to parks” ranting, which by the way is totally inaccurate, have you stopped to consider what parks do for your property value?

      Who benefits FINANCIALLY from parks? Property owners. Period. Quit crying about spending twenty dollars on something that contributes thousands to the value of your property. It makes you sound petty…and not terribly smart.

      • Why so much bellyaching from the right wingers? We’ve been in a recovery without another recession for 7 years now.

        There must be a half dozen jewelry stores in and around the AV Mall. New car sales have been great the last couple years.

        People have money to spend, it seems. Every weekend a new blockbuster movie rakes in $100 million or so.

        I figure if your life isn’t working, it’s on you. Other people in worse situations are making it some how. Maybe you need to get to work instead of kvetching all the time.

        California is now the 6th largest economy in the world. Go to Kansas where the republican economic model has been a catastrophe even after poaching the call center from Lancaster. Go. Pack yourself up and go.

      • But, Tim, have you stopped to consider what Cops do for your property value?

        Who benefits FINANCIALLY from Cops? Property owners. Period. Quit crying about them all the time, they contribute thousands to the value of your property. It makes you sound petty…and not terribly smart.

        Who are you to tell ANYONE they are “ranting” and they’re “totally inaccurate”. You’re a waste of good air space!

        Vote NO to ANY new Taxes!! Or, it’s ONLY $22, Let Tim pay your share!!

    • In Lancaster they want us to pay for a homeless shelter that is merely a front for more police funding. It will attract more homeless and provide funding to mistreat the homeless we have. No thank you. I will give my money to the agencies that are actually working to reduce and prevent homelessness rather than to give it to the corrupt Fern St. Mafia.

  14. Nothing is free one way or another some type of tax pays for it.

    Let me rephrase some get free stuff based off of tax payers so I guess some people get free parks, money, medical etc.

  16. WE NEED TO TAX MORE FROM THE RICH THEY ARE PRIVILEGED THAT NEED TO BE TAXED MORE AND MORE.

    • So someone working and trying their best to pursue the dream is rich? Do you even know what rich is? Do you really believe there are RICH people in the AV? Someone with a job? Go back and count your Section 8 free earnings.

      • there are plenty of rich people who will have to pay up for this too. you are nothing but clueless whiners Kay, 10dog and JipJoe. it’s selfish entitled a$$hats like you that are ruining this nation. it doesn’t take a rich person to spend $25 a year to make the community a better place to live for everyone

    • You too have the right to be rich. Just create something that other people actually want or need. Once you become rich you will find the words of your statement changing a bit.