Whipped Cream Difficulties

A while back, I read Ian Flemming’s book Thrilling Cities. It occurs to me that someone could write a book called Crooked Cities, possibly without ever leaving California.

First up: the state Senate has rejected a bill that would have disincorporated the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon. This isn’t the end of the line: the city has agreed to some reforms, and is currently under investigation by the IRS. But it is a major setback for those of us who were hoping for a good disincorporation.

Meanwhile, back in Bell, former fiefdom of Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, it seems that the city issued $50 million in bonds a few years back. (I can’t tell if it was 2003 or 2004 from the LAT article.) The bonds were intended to pay for

a state-of-the-art complex for baseball and soccer and a new practice space for the Bell Sapphires, its award-winning cheerleading team. The city also planned to improve the civic center and parks, and to build a new library and other facilities.

Anyone want to take a guess on what’s happened?

The city spent millions of dollars on design, site preparation and fencing. But the land remains vacant, with no plans to build anything there. Some improvements were made at other city parks, but the promised facilities weren’t built.

Here’s the punchline: even though nothing was built, the money’s gone, and the city’s broke, the new city government still has to go through with the tax increases that were put into place to pay off the bonds.

For a home valued at $400,000, the annual property tax levy would increase by $116 beginning around October, according to city officials. Bell’s current tax rate would rise from 1.54% to 1.57%. That means the owner of a $400,000 home in Bell would pay about $2,000 more in property taxes than a similar homeowner in Pasadena or Beverly Hills.

Of course, the tax increase money is going to the bond holders, not into the general city government fund. And the city residents are upset that their taxes are being increased. But what’s the alternative, guys? Defaulting on the bonds, even if they were issued by a bunch of crooks, is just going to hurt you in the long run. Bell’s best bet at this point seems to be to return the unspent funds (about $20 million, per the LAT), and try to squeeze whatever they can out of Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and his cronies.