Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

In response to a request by the building community, the mayor and council have decided once more to forego the collection of fees from the home builders; their decision was founded on the premise that doing so would induce a resurgence of home building in the community, thus generating jobs and improving the local economy.  Although the purpose and the decision appear well thought-out and to be a decisive response to a depressed local economy, the decision to forego the collection of fees will have little or no affect on the local economy, will not generate an appreciable number of jobs, nor bring the community any closer to improving the level of services or quality of life.

 This decision and other recent decisions associated with the collection of fees, does effectively reduce and limit the municipal revenue stream for years to come.  The mayor and council seem to have forgotten that this same response to the previous downturns in the local economy did not result in a resurgence of the building industry, the resurgence did occur over time as the regional and national economy rebounded.  As I noted to the mayor once before, their actions towards improving the local economy amounts to throwing stones at a 900 pound gorilla to move it aside.  What this decision and others do accomplish is a further depletion of future municipal revenue, puts the future budgeting process at risk, erodes at the city’s ability to maintain current levels of service (let alone improve levels of service) especially the safety sector, and assures further delay of the community’s ability to bring about many of the missing community amenities.  The mayor and council have once again taken two steps backwards, and have traded our future away with no appreciable return for the action.

I have no issue with the building community, they certainly have the right to seek relief from whomever and adjust their fiscal models in response to changing markets.  My issue is with how easily the mayor and council give away this community’s resources and future, then bemoan the lack of funds and then must cut services and service levels in order to make ends meet.

Finally, does it make sense that a micro resurgence in the local home building industry will result in a large number of high paying jobs and increase municipal revenue in Manteca.  The answer is no; in the overall scheme of the local economic domain, the mayor and council’s decision will result in less than a blip on the scale of economic resurgence.  It will however reduce the builder’s upfront investment, maybe generate a few more home permits and a few more jobs, but it will not improve the sale of homes, it will not increase sales tax revenue, it does not balance the budget, and it will diminish this community’s ability to meet future needs of the residents.

I am running for mayor of this community in 2010 because the practice of giving away the community’s resources, funds, and future comes too easy to the current mayor and city council.  Unless there is a fundamental change, a new focus, and new priorities to providing service, and to whom, the service levels and quality of life of the residents of Manteca will continue to fall backwards and be lacking for years to come.