Long Beach Rebellion hopes to convince voters to reject ballot measures

A new group calling itself Long Beach Rebellion is attempting to convince voters to ignore some of the city’s more prominent political actors and reject a proposed sales tax increase on June 7.

Mayor Robert Garcia, along with predecessors Bob Foster and Beverly O’Neill, have joined Long Beach’s police and fire unions in asking voters to approve the tax as a means to finance infrastructure improvements and enhanced public safety staffing. Long Beach Rebellion’s platform, however, declares its opposition to the proposal for such reasons as there being no legal requirements for city govement to spend future revenues in any particular way, conces a mayor-appointed advisory committee may be toothless and that a sales tax increase may create hardships for seniors and low-income eaers.

“We’ve got supporters that would be opposed to it for any reason, and we’ve got supporters who are opposed to it because of the way it was handled,” Long Beach Rebellion spokesman Franklin Sims said.

Long Beach’s sales tax rate is currently set at 9 percent. The sales tax proposal is scheduled to appear on the June 7 ballot as Measure A. If approved by a majority of voters, the tax would increase Long Beach’s sales tax rate by one percentage point for six years before the rate increases diminishes to half a percentage point for the following four years. The tax would expire after 10 years.

Although Garcia and other Long Beach officials have proposed the tax as a means to finance a long list of infrastructure improvements and to help the city’s police and fire departments, the estimated $48 million worth of aual future revenues could be legally be spent on any aspect of govement business since those dollars would flow into the city’s general fund.

Voters can have a greater say in the city’s fiscal policy if they also pass Measure B. The companion measure would require 1 percent of future tax revenues to be saved in a “rainy day” fund.

Although there would not otherwise be strict legal requirements for how Measure A revenues may be spent, fire union president Rex Pritchard said firefighters would be intent upon holding city politicians to their promises.

“If not, we’ll tu on our electeds,” Pritchard said.

Pritchard also said firefighters are in dire need of more resources. He referred to recent data showing that in 2005, 73 percent of fire department response times clocked in at fewer than six minutes. Last year, only 46 percent of fire department responses achieved that standard.

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Long Beach’s fire and police unions have given heavy financial support to the ballot measures. Besides helping the mayor’s officeholder committee pay for polling, the fire union has given $50,000 to the ballot measure campaign. The police union has given $100,000.

As of Thursday, Long Beach Rebellion’s supporters were still working on developing an official opposition campaign to the ballot measures.

Sims said that although the group filed papers with the Secretary of State’s office to form a campaign, officials asked them to re-file their paperwork so their committee’s name would specifically state the ballot measures they are opposing.

Otherwise, the Rebellion’s activities include Sims’ appearance at this past Tuesday’s council meeting in which he said tax opponents have been canvassing neighborhoods where likely voters reside. Sims also asked council members to help fund Long Beach Rebellion’s efforts to challenge the measures’ “big money backers.”

Mark Taylor, spokesman for the campaign backing Measure A and B, said campaign supporters making phone calls to potential voters have not encountered signs of Long Beach Rebellion’s influence.

Sims, however, said his allies have received overtures of potential cooperation from others wanting to stop Measure LB, an $850 billion bond measure for the Long Beach Community College District, from passing. He also said sales tax opponents have passed out their entire batch of yard signs.

“At the very least, we’ve got 100 rebels,” Sims said.