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7/22/2009 - Mayor Mark Nuaimi and Redevelopment Chairperson Janice Rutherford urge residents to contact their State Legislators immediately

Fontana, CA – Mayor Mark Nuaimi and Redevelopment Chairperson Janice Rutherford are asking residents to contact their state legislators immediately to vote NO on a proposed budget that steals money from local communities.

"The proposed state budget includes significant takeaways and borrowing from California cities. In Fontana, this translates to $3.3 million in hghway users tax and that loss of funds will force Fontana to lay off staff, stop repairing potholes and fixing broken street signs, cut the repair of sidewalks, curbs and gutters, and significantly reduce road slurry sealing, overlays, and street light maintenance," said Mayor Nuaimi.

“We have already had lay offs, cut service levels through early retirements, cut funds in road maintenance and capital improvements to manage our budget responsibly. We are asking the State to manage theirs and to prepare a budget that is free of accounting gimmicks and take-aways from local government," Nuaimi added.

“The seizure of $28 million from our Redevelopment agency would be horrific,” said Redevelopment Chairperson Janice Rutherford. "This translates into dollar-for-dollar elimination of infrastructure investment, jobs and economic development. Fontana has over $105 million in projects that will be eliminated by this state takeaway. The state is being irresponsible and seizing local funding is thievery. Please call your state legislators and tell them to live within their means without stealing. Local governments should not pay for the state’s incompetency.”

In addition to these outright takeaways of city funds, the state is also proposing to borrow $2 million from the taxpayers of Fontana. This will force us to use money from our reserves that will then not be available to address local emergencies. Without these funds available, Fontana cannot backfill the money the state is stealing from our Highway Users Tax Account or Redevelopment Agency. We are in an economic crisis and this does NOT solve the State budget issues. It is a complete masquerade at the expense of local government," concluded Nuaimi.

Read more news about Fontana California.



Submitted to the Inland Empire by John Perez of the City of Fontana

Source: Inland Empire (Inland Empire News)


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