Skip to main content

The Lockean Project

Marina bond measure too high

“Marina bond measure too high,” Monterey Herald – July 13, 2022

Oh, Marina City Council, you are sly in how you are packaging the potential bond measure for “city facilities.”  The $53 million price tag is too high and too expansive, given that residents already taxed themselves to pay for the same items.  In 2018, Marina residents passed Measure V allowing for marijuana businesses and taxing them, with an estimated $1 million in revenue.  In the statement in favor, signed by Mayor Bruce Delgado, former Supervisor Jane Parker, now Supervisor Wendy Root Askew, and now City Councilperson Cristina Medina Dirksen, they wrote “these funds [from the Measure] could go to new facilities such as a senior center or toward rising costs of street maintenance, parks, public safety and other City services.”  That same year, the same group endorsed, Measure N increasing the sales tax and generating a projected $1.63 million saying that “Marina residents deserve quality city services including: Safe well-maintained roads; Fully staffed fire and police force; Beautiful parks; and Recreation programs for youth, families, and seniors.”

Revenues from these taxes have been generated over the last four years but do not appear to have been allocated for the purposes stated in the endorsements by the elected leaders.  Also, why did the city not embed fire station costs into the development fees and taxes for the new housing as have many communities in California, including the neighboring East Garrison? With the economy stumbling to recover and inflation, now is not the time for the city to heft another tax increase on residents when there are existing sources of revenue to enact the proposed improvements.

— Rob Weisskirch, Marina