I detect a big pie in the sky — a big lemon pie — over Atascadero! Why? Our City Council/Redevelopment Agency Board has given the go ahead to sell $12 million in bonds to finance several downtown “improvement� projects. Bonds of this sort don’t require voter approval since they won’t be paid back with a general property tax increase. They will be paid back from the growth of property tax revenue expected when a revamped downtown increases property values there. Really? Really! At least that’s what they figure.
Interestingly enough, in the same issue of the Tribune that announced the bond sale was a story headlined, “Gardena perched on edge of financial collapse,� [because it] owes $26 million it doesn’t have as a result of the City Council’s decision to borrow money for a [pie in the sky] that failed. Well, we’ll see.
Richard Kinz
Atascadero
This article appears in Nov 18-25, 2004.