On October 1, 2018, citizens of Chula Vista were required to start paying higher taxes in accordance with Measure A, as city officials were working towards hiring more police officers and firefighters. After the bill was passed, the people of Chula Vista were expecting more police officers and firefighters on duty, reducing crime response times to emergency calls. However, it has been over eight months and not much has changed. In fact, the numbers show that money is being wasted due to the poor response to higher taxation.
Councilwoman Jill Galvez led the charge to pass Measure A, after unfairly firing her only aide in an attempt to show where the city’s money could be going instead. Her aide lost his job, and the end goal still hasn’t come close to being reached.
City officials have not upheld the promise to their voters and have generated excuses left and right to protect their names. However, it is blatantly obvious that the lack of money isn’t the problem, but rather how the situation was handled.
The goal of Measure A was to create 43 new positions in the police department by 2023 and create 36 new positions in the fire department by 2025. Since October, only five new positions have been created in the police department, with just one having been filled. The budget used to open these unfilled positions is going to waste for this year, and further indicating the lack of organization and patience coming from city officials.
Californians are already paying extreme prices in one of the most expensive states in the country, so unjustified taxation worsens the situation. Lower taxes are necessary to ensure that people have the ability to be successful in a state that is ridiculously expensive.
Officials need to use more efficient methods of spending money, including allowing individuals to keep more of their income so that these mistakes don’t continue to happen.
