YUCCA VALLEY TOWN COUNCIL HEARS ABOUT TAX AND BOND MEASURES

Representatives from the county fire department gave a brief presentation about the expansion of service zone FP-5 at the Yucca Valley Town Council meeting last night. More than a dozen residents spoke against the fire fee of $157 that would be added to their property taxes, and four of the five council members also voiced their opposition to it. (Mayor Rick Denison, a former county fire battalion chief, supports the fire fee.) Some of the opposition to the fire fee was due to the way it was being implemented, by making residents go online to download and print a protest form to be completed and mailed in before October 15. After the meeting, fire officials met with residents to answer their questions about the fire fee. Managing editor Tami Roleff says that following the fire presentation, the council heard about Measure O to benefit the Morongo Unified School District and how a repeal of the gas tax would affect the town’s infrastructure projects…

Morongo Unified School District board member Hilary Slotta told council members in her presentation about the $62 million Measure O bond that is on the November ballot that the funds would be used solely to renovate and modernize school facilities. The bond measure would add $55 per $100,000 of a property’s assessed value. Some of the items that would be updated with the bonds would be a new district-wide security system that would allow a school to be locked down with the touch of a button; and connecting a school’s surveillance cameras to the Sheriff’s Department. Internet connectivity and Wi-Fi would be improved; as well as aging electrical systems, ventilation, and heating and air-conditioning systems; and roofs replaced. Slotta emphasized that all bond funds must be spent locally and can’t be taken by the state.

Then the council heard about how the approval of Prop 6—which if passed, would repeal the 12 cent-per-gallon gasoline tax—would adversely affect the town. The town is expecting to receive about $357,000 a year as its share of the gas tax, which can only be used on road infrastructure. With the partial payment of $126,000 that it received this year, it repaved Buena Vista. If Prop 6 is approved and the gas tax is repealed, the town would have to shift funds from other street projects or delay them.