Mary Farmar Elementary students. | Mary Farmar Elementary Facebook Page.
By Vice Mayor Terry Scott, January 23, 2024
Benicia Vice-Mayor Terry Scott.
My fellow Benicians,
Investing in our schools is an investment in the future of our community. The proposed improvements, spanning infrastructure, classrooms, and technology, are crucial for fostering an environment where students can thrive.
A strong BUSD school system not only provides a high-quality education but also contributes significantly to the overall well-being of our residents.
Improved facilities and advanced technology ensure that students have access to modern resources, preparing them for the challenges of the future job market.
As Benicia residents, we play a pivotal role in shaping the foundation of our community. Supporting this bond measure is an investment in the growth and prosperity of our town.
Passage of the bond measure will not result in higher property taxes. In fact, because the way the bond is structured, the average Benicia property owner should see a tax reduction of about $30.00.
Let’s come together to empower our schools and, in turn, empower our future generations.
There, you’ll find a letter to parents and guardians, an FAQ for the measure, and the BUSD Facilities Master Plan.
Visit BelieveInBenicia.org to learn more about Benicia’s Resiliency Plan, sign up for updates from Benicia City Manager Mario Giuliani, and join the effort to help shape Benicia’s future. While some workshops have already occurred, there is still time to add your voice! Look for the red, bolded text below to see upcoming workshops, and please fill out the community survey (also linked below).
Former Benicia City Council Member Mark Hughes. | City of Benicia.Benicia Mayor Steve Young. | City of Benicia.
By Steve Young and Mark Hughes, January 22, 2024
[A note from the authors: Some may be surprised to see both of us as authors of this opinion piece. We served together on the Council from 2016–18, and while we did vote differently on a variety of issues, we respected each other’s point of view. We never ran against each other, but did support different candidates in various elections. But the one thing we never doubted was our mutual commitment to the betterment of the City. We both know that our financial situation is dire, and that these revenue measures will help keep Benicia financially stable moving forward.]
Slowly, Benicia residents are becoming aware of the extent of the fiscal challenge facing the City. There is an ongoing annual deficit of $6.5 million. Currently we are using reserves to cover the deficit, but those reserves will only last one more fiscal year.
Then what? There must be a combination of budget cuts and new revenue if we are to put off cuts to programs and services that Benicia residents have come to expect. Part of the reason for our rapidly increasing costs are the same as those affecting all of our residents, such as higher energy costs for fuel and heating/cooling, increasing health care costs, as well as the cost of virtually everything the City buys. In short, the City’s expenses have been increasing year over year, while revenue has been stagnant.
Some people point at recent raises given to City employees as the problem. The fact is that our employees were falling further and further behind other local area governments in compensation, and we were losing trained employees to other cities and counties, as well as finding it very difficult to recruit and hire new employees, especially those with specialized skills.
The simple fact is we cannot cut our way to a balanced budget; we also need additional revenue. The City’s two main sources of revenue are property taxes and sales taxes. Because our town is so attractive to families and others, there are relatively few houses for sale. This low turnover rate, combined with Prop. 13, has resulted in essentially flat property tax levels for several years. It’s also important to note that Benicia only receives approximately ¼ of the property tax collected, with the remaining money going to State, County, and School agencies.
Sales taxes have also been relatively flat, with very little new development for more than a decade. And while a small town, no-growth attitude is what some people love about Benicia, it comes at a real cost.
In response to this situation, which has been brewing for more than a decade, the City Council is facing up to the challenge by proposing reductions in expenses, and two tax increase measures that will appear on the March 5 ballot. The first tax measure is Measure A, which will raise the local hotel tax paid by tourists and guests from 9% to 13%. The second tax measure is Measure B, which will ask voters to approve a 3/4 cent increase in the sales tax, from 8.375% to 9.125%. This increase represents 75¢ for every $100 spent. The increased tax would generate $5-5.5 million/year, and go a long way towards eliminating the deficit, and maintaining the programs and services the City currently provides. This sales tax increase, if approved will be overseen by a Citizens Review Committee, and will be in effect for 12 years, at which time it will sunset.
What will happen if the measure fails? This is where the conversation becomes much more difficult. While the City Council unanimously supports this measure, the only responsible thing to do is to hope for the best, but plan for the worst, in the event that it fails. The City has been, and will continue to ask citizens to share what services are most important to them, because if Measure B does fail, the City will need to consider budget cuts and service reductions in all areas of the city, including Public Safety, Parks, Library, Public Works, etc.In addition, it is likely that most of the Boards and Commissions would be eliminated, as well as the Grants that the City provides to the Arts, Culture and Human Services organizations.
And please believe us when we say that these are definitely not intended to be scare tactics; it really comes down to basic math.
We love our town, and the quality of life that we enjoy here.Please join us by supporting the City’s strategies to address our financial challenges.
We ask you to support Measures A and B on the March ballot, and encourage you to ask your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Visit BelieveInBenicia.org to learn more about Benicia’s Resiliency Plan, sign up for updates from Benicia City Manager Mario Giuliani, and join the effort to help shape Benicia’s future. While some workshops have already occurred, there is still time to add your voice! Look for the red, bolded text below to see upcoming workshops, and please fill out the community survey (also linked below).
[Note from BenIndy: Please bear with us for posting more than usual but Solano Together has responded to the initiative and map released by California Forever and it’s worth your time to see what they have to say. Once again, you can check out California Forever’s full, 83-page initiative text HERE. Sign up to learn more about Solano Together HERE. Images shown below are not original to the Solano Together news release and were added by BenIndy.]
Click the image to enlarge. A map of where California Forever plans on putting its new city in Solano County, right between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista. | California Forever / Handout via SFGate.
SUISUN CITY – The Solano Together coalition strongly opposes California Forever’s plans for a sprawling new development in rural Solano County announced this Wednesday. After years of secrecy, months of public controversy, and four months of rushed community engagement, Flannery Associates shared initial glimpses of their new proposed community in Southeastern Solano County.
For Solano Together, the details revealed today did not come as a surprise: California Forever continues to be a senseless sprawl development in a remote, undeveloped part of Solano County. These types of projects divert much needed public and private resources away from cities and residents, leaving existing infrastructure to degrade and residents to suffer.
Flannery Associates are going for the “christmas tree” approach for the proposal, trying to sprinkle financial benefits to specific interest groups around the County in a way that distracts from the negative impact of the proposal on water, county resources, traffic, and taxpayers in existing cities.
Jobs: We’ve seen countless development proposals adopted by cities around the region with promises for jobs, only later to go back to ask for modifications in the proposal based on a change in market conditions. And we also know from experience that nearby cities are often in direct competition for companies and services that do want to locate in an area. Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville have all invested significant resources in attracting new jobs to their community. Flannery’s incentives to lure those jobs away from the population centers of the county to this new development will only harm our communities and reduce opportunities for existing residents. Based on this track record, the idea of 15,000 new jobs in this area is an empty promise.
Taxpayer Money: The plan purports to be a new approach to development, but its physical location—far away from jobs, services, and infrastructure—points to more of the same, investing scarce public funds in expanding infrastructure rather than investing in improvements for long-time residents. Flannery Associates’ proposal spins their small investment in infrastructure upgrades, such as roads and water pipes, as a huge benefit to the community, when the project relies on millions of dollars of public investment for new roads, sewer and water, and schools, funds that will need to be diverted from other priorities.
Solano Together members waved signs at the California Forever Benicia Town Hall on December 18, 2023. | BenIndy.
What Solano Together Coalition supporters are saying:
“Buying up farmland at low prices and rezoning for housing development has been a quick way to make a buck for decades in California. The plans we’ve seen fly in the face of decades of thoughtful planning and action that was first set into motion to protect Solano’s cherished agricultural industries. Developing highly productive ranch lands into urban uses cannot be undone. We cannot continue to allow developers to put food security, long-term sustainability, and livelihoods on the line in exchange for short-term profits.”—Solano Farm Bureau.
“California Forever has no real plans for public transportation or transit. This development is going to clog our streets, highways, and bridges. It will make our climate worse by paving over farmlands—all while making Solano residents pay the cost”—Duane Kromm, member of the Orderly Growth Committee and former Solano County Board Supervisor.
“California Forever’s proposed plans are a detriment to wildlife, native plant life, and water resources that our ecology and communities depend on. We need to protect Solano County’s open space now and for the future. You don’t need to be an environmentalist to ask: ‘What sort of world are we going to leave our future generations?’”—Princess Washington, Mayor Pro-Tem of Suisun City & Chair of the Sierra Club of Solano County.
“Sprawling developments such as California Forever don’t just permanently destroy nature, habitat for wildlife, and farm and ranchland. These developments also divert much needed public and private resources away from cities and residents. Instead of abandoning our existing cities for something shiny and new, we believe the truly visionary approach would be to make transformative investments in them, improving the lives for both current and future residents.”—Sadie Wilson, Director of Planning and Research at Greenbelt Alliance.
“Flannery Associates’ plans to take surface water from the Sacramento River and/or pump groundwater from the Solano subbasin to support a whole new city would further stress critical water resources in Solano County and the Delta, and threaten to undo recent progress made to manage water resources sustainably and responsibly for future generations.”—Osha Meserve, Lawyer specializing in water and environmental impacts.
“I see nothing in the plans that protects Travis Air Force Base. California Forever’s promises mean nothing if Travis is forced to close due to housing encroachment, glare from 10,000 acres of solar farms, and noise complaints from new residents where sheep now graze. In fact, they aren’t building a city, they’re sprawling housing over 18,000 acres without legally creating a city. That could very well endanger Travis’ mission.”—Catherine Moy, Mayor of Fairfield
Solano Together’s top priorities are to drive growth, development, and economic investment into the county’s existing cities and protect the invaluable agricultural and environmental resources that are central to our community and industries. California Forever fails to do that by doubling down on a pattern of sprawl development that endangers the livelihoods of the agricultural community and taxes Solano’s crucial natural resources such as water, land, habitats, and ecosystems.
BenIndy.
Learn more about Solano Together here. For more information, contact: Daniela Ades, dades@greenbelt.org, 1-415-792-9226
[Note from BenIndy: Lots to look at and start unpacking here. First, we have our first map of the new town proposed by California Forever (see headline image) and a population goal for the first wave of new settler-occupiers – 50,000 (with room to expand to 400,000). Second, we now know what the ballot initiative will be called and how many signatures will be required to put it on the ballot: getting the East Solano Homes, Jones, And Clean Energy Initiative on the November ballot will require 13,000 signatures from Solano voters. Third, they’re launching with a plan to offer $400 million to Solano residents to help with down payments on homes in this new city. Not mentioned in this article are the $200 million California Forever is planning to invest in Solano cities (including Benicia) to revitalize downtown areas, and a laundry list of various “guarantee” initiatives, including the Solano Jobs Guarantee, Green Solano Guarantee, Water Guarantee, Transportation Guarantee, Schools Guarantee, Smart Growth Guarantee, Taxpayer Guarantee … Phew. Check out the full, 83-page initiative text HERE.]
Click the image to enlarge. A map of where California Forever plans on putting its new city in Solano County, right between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista. | California Forever / Handout via SFGate.
The new proposed city in Solano County finally has a map. Along with the map, California Forever, the group backing the project, is promising a utopia of affordable homes, world-leading technology and efficient public transit.
On Wednesday, California Forever said it is officially filing the East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative with the Solano County Registrar of Voters. [Emph. added by BenIndy.] If the group can secure more than 13,000 signatures from Solano County voters, the measure will go before voters this November.
The group has been criticized for its secrecy. Last year, news broke that a shadowy group called Flannery Associates was buying up tens of thousands of acres of land in rural Solano County. Within a decade, they’d quietly become the biggest landowner in the county. Local politicians demanded an investigation into the group amid concerns it was a national security threat to have an unnamed landowner snatching up plots near Travis Air Force Base.
In August, a group of tech billionaires was revealed as the backers of the land grab. Among them are philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. They launched the California Forever name at that time, installing former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek as its CEO.
Farmland and wind farms in the background in rural Solano County. | Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP.
Since then, California Forever has done a PR blitz in Solano County, sending out thousands of surveys to residents, holding town halls and opening offices in several towns. The ambitious plan has been met with skepticism, especially around concerns that traffic congestion is already a constant problem on Interstate 80 between Fairfield and Dixon. The city is being planned to start with 50,000 residents but eventually could accommodate 400,000. The map shows the new city would be nestled between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista.
“This is a pipe dream,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, who was furious with backers for their secrecy about property close to a U.S. Air Force base. He said the proposed development, which he also was briefed on, makes no sense “in the middle of areas surrounded by wind farms, gas fields, endangered species, no water, no sanitation system and no road system let alone a highway system.”
California Forever’s initiative boldly claims the new city will be “one of the most sustainable communities in the world.” Its 18,600 acres will include 4,000 acres of “parks, trails, urban ecological habitat, community gardens, and other types of open space.” Neighborhoods will be grouped around schools, shops and restaurants, with an emphasis on walkability. Previous renderings released by the group show Manhattan-like row houses and Mediterranean-style vistas.
People find seats as they get more information on the new California Forever proposed development off Highway 12 near Rio Vista during a town hall meeting on Thursday. | Chris Riley / Times-Herald.
California Forever said it will be distributing $400 million to Solano County residents who need help making a down payment, with priority given to “working families, teachers, nurses, police and firefighters and construction workers.” Its promotional materials do not yet list how much homes will cost.
Likely in direct response to the many fears about an unknown group surrounding Travis AFB, the plan also says it will designate a “Travis Security Zone” that doubles the “buffer” around the base from about 8,000 acres to 15,000 acres.
If the measure goes to Solano County voters in November, California Forever needs them to overturn protections put in place in 1984 to keep agricultural land from being turned into urban space. If approved, the plan would then undergo two years of environmental review.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More about California Forever on the Benicia Independent:
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