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Jan. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
22:53
Santa Ana’s Poverty Trap, Explained | Cecilia Iglesias - California Policy Center
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And so they're moving out and they're, you know, Santa Ana is not going to be bringing in the revenue as much as they're thinking.
So that's why when people move out, you know, people don't, not shopping in Santa Ana, not paying taxes in Santa Ana, and then our liabilities are going up.
So our expenses are going up, our revenues coming down.
Naturally, what we're going to have in about another five years, you know, our city can be facing bankruptcy.
My guest today is Ceci Iglesias.
She's the Education and Community Relations Director for California Policy Center.
Ceci was a city councilwoman of Santa Ana and a taxpayer advocate and educator.
Today, Ceci will share her insider perspective into why a city like Santa Ana has the highest sales tax rate while also having the highest poverty rate in Orange County, California.
Welcome to California Insider.
So Ceci, it's great to have you on the show.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor to be here with you.
And we want to talk to you about, I found out something strange.
It was strange to me to see Santana, the city that has the highest poverty rate in Orange County, having the highest sales tax rate.
Can you tell us how we got here?
It's very unfortunate.
I believe the reason why we got there is because we weren't holding our elected officials accountable with taxpayer money.
You know, they keep on spending and spending, spending our money, but not really being accountable to the residents.
And in 2018, what happened is the city saw that if they didn't raise taxes, their budget was going to be in the red.
So in order for them to keep afloat, not having to lay off individuals or cut services, they said the only way we could do this to save the city is for us to raise the taxes on the residents.
It did go for a vote, and the residents did vote for it, but the thing is they knew that in order for it to pass, They had to be a simple majority, like 55%.
So they made it more for the general fund.
They didn't do it specifically.
If they wanted a specific project to be built or something that we were going to address, it needed a two-thirds majority in order for it to pass.
But then if it went to the general fund, they could just sell it to the voters.
And unfortunately, in my opinion, it passed.
Through, I would say, lying to the voters, saying that it was going to go to services, to parks, to the youth, to our seniors.
Things that any voter would say, yes, let's take care of our seniors.
Let's take care of our youth.
But not knowing that when the money gets into City Hall, into the bureaucrats, into the city, it doesn't go where they say it's going to go.
Where did it go?
Well, the money, with that money, with the additional sales tax, we're supposed to get an additional $60 million a year.
And we are getting it based on the sales that we're making, but it went into benefits and salaries of our employees.
And that absorbed more than half of the $60 million.
So we're left with less than half for us to really address the issues that are happening in our city.
But as we know, all across California and in Santa Ana, we're no exception.
A lot of it goes into the pension.
So even from just the salaries and benefits, the increase that they received, we also have to take into account The pension liability that we have.
So according to our finance director, the city is going to be in the same situation in the next five years because our pension liability is just going up and up and eventually it's going to be at the same place that we were in 2018 that we can't afford what we currently have.
So a city like Santana, why do you think is in this situation?
There seems to be some mismanagement, right?
Is there a reason for it or do you think there is a mismanagement thereof?
In my opinion, yes, we do have a mismanagement of our taxpayer money because it's not going to really pay down our debt.
It's not going into services that we have.
It's mostly going into whatever the bureaucrats and the elected officials that are there, whatever they have promised, their labor negotiations or whatever they promised the people that have elected them, the money to go into their cause.
So what I believe is, you know, our city, we have a budget close to $600 million a year.
We have about, I would say, about $380 into our general fund, but then we get grants, we get all these different type of money from different sources.
So we're managing close to $600 million a year.
That's a lot of money for a city.
And then for us to even not get the simplest of basic services in our city, I always say it's kind of like a slap in the face to the residents because we were trusting that the city would do the best for us.
You know, they're not going to raise fees.
They're not going to raise any more taxes because we've already, like you were saying, we already taxed the highest in the county.
And yet we are like the poorest, I would say, in immediate income in the county, in the city.
And I believe it's because The people don't get as involved in holding the bureaucrats and also the elected officials accountable.
So they're pretty much just saying, okay, you know, every year, every other year, they're getting raises.
They're getting raises.
So the money is going into that.
Instead of saying, okay, you know, instead of saying we have...
We have a staff that's well compensated.
Let's put that money into services.
Let's put it into our community because we want Santa Ana to be a nice looking city.
I work in Tustin and it's borderline Santa Ana.
On Tustin Avenue, if you go on First Street, you know when you're in Tustin and right when you're entering Santa Ana.
It's like, I mean, why?
Because, you know, Tustin is able to, I guess, administer their money better.
And I would say also takes pride in their city and also, you know, takes pride in helping out their residents, which I believe in Santa Ana, the elected officials and the bureaucrats have taken advantage of our...
So you mentioned that people are not getting involved.
What does that mean?
They're not going into the city council meetings?
What does getting involved mean?
I would say a lot of people don't have time to go to the city council meetings because they're not that exciting.
Calling on the city council, emailing them, or really be in, I would say like in their face saying, you know, you promised you were going to do this.
A lot of times what happens is like, you know, the people get elected, election season's over, and they pretty much just don't have the time to really get involved.
Not because they don't want to.
A lot of, in Santa Ana, a lot of our...
I would say our families, they're working two to three jobs to make ends meet.
It's very expensive for them to, you know, to even hold a one or two bedroom apartment in Santa Ana because, you know, they're making minimum wage.
And so they have to, you know, they have three or four, you know, children.
So they have to take care of their families.
So they don't have time to really be political.
Because they just say, you know what?
I just want them against me.
Just leave me alone.
I want to raise my family.
But the thing is, they're hoping that the people that they have elected, they're going to do the best for our community, what's in the best interest of our community.
But unfortunately, that doesn't happen because I would say the elected officials know that our families are working two to three jobs, so they're too busy to try to hold them accountable.
And sometimes that's what happens.
They get too comfortable.
And then they just forget about the people that elected them.
Does it take a lot of effort to...
How much political will is there needed to make a change in a city like Santa Ana where things are stuck and you see the revenue coming in but you don't see the services getting better?
Yeah.
Well, you know, with any, I would say, board and city council in Santa Ana, we're a council of six and a mayor, so there's seven.
So you would have to know that at least four people have to be like in the same mindset, the same, have the same convictions and have the same, I would say, priorities to put the residents first and to ensure that They get the services, they get the resources that they need.
But unfortunately, in my opinion, the past 20 years, that hasn't happened.
And that's where Santa Ana has gotten into the situation that it has.
And also, you have a lot of people that are very vocal.
Um, about, you know, their own agenda.
So what happens is, like, these, um, I would say, you know, these people who are more active activists, they're the ones that are coming to the city council, they're the ones that are lobbying them, but they're not, they're not, I would say, like, the, um, The entire population.
Because these activists also know that a lot of our families don't have the time to get involved either.
So they're the ones that I would say are dictating what's happening with our elected officials in Santa Ana.
Do you think these activists have their own agenda?
They get their own benefits from the city?
Or do they have a certain perspective?
Is it their perspective or is there any...
No, I would say benefits.
I believe anyone that comes to lobby the elected officials, they have an agenda.
They want their programs or they want their services to be covered or funded by some of the money that the city gives out to our community.
So I see that as whoever gets involved the most is the one that gets most of the attention.
So like they say, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
And you have your own story.
So how did you get into the politics?
How did you get involved?
I started getting involved with politics, you know, just with my own neighborhood, just trying to see what, you know, what I could do.
But what really opened up my eyes, I worked for the county for about, you know, for about 20 years with the county, and my last assignment I was a contract administrator.
And I remember one of the things that I would have to see is, you know, there were some budgets that would come to us and we would have to try to make contracts with service providers out in our community just to see, you know, the services we're going to provide for our constituents.
And one thing that really stuck to me is during, I think it was in, I left in 2010, so it was about 2009, we had stimulus money, that's what it was.
It was stimulus money that they gave to us and then they said, you know, we have six million dollars that we need to spend in the next six months.
And my question is like, you know, why are we going to spend money?
You know, it's like, what services are we going to be They're like, I don't know, you know, you've got to find how we're going to allocate these funds, the services that we're going to provide, the families you've got to find, the families that we're going to serve.
And I'm like, why couldn't you just save this money, like, you know, a rainy day fund, you know, can we save it for the following year?
But the mentality with government is that if you don't use it, you lose it.
So at the end of the year, if we weren't going to use it, then, you know, we're going to lose it, so we have to give it to somebody else so they could Spend it on something else.
So what I've seen in government is like the mentality is that if people are not paying attention, you know, they'll take advantage of the taxpayer and also they'll just waste our taxpayer money.
Because sometimes even when I was in the school district, another thing that also happened was they would buy a lot of books.
And I would go into some of the elementary schools and some of the principals would show me that we have all these unopened books that they didn't even use for the whole year.
But we spent so much money trying to buy these books.
Why didn't we use them?
Well, we really didn't need them.
We just had to buy them or else we're not going to get that next year.
So it's kind of like that mentality with government.
It's like, you know, you have to use it or you lose it.
And that's that phrase that everybody knows.
If you work in government, you know that phrase, which is, use it or you lose it.
So you saw that and from there you got motivated to get more involved?
Yeah.
Yeah, I got more involved and the one thing that I started doing is trying to understand the budget.
The budget for both the city that I lived in and for the district, the school district that, you know, that my son was going to go into.
And when I started seeing that, it's like, oh my gosh, you know, these cities, we have so much money.
The city of Santa Ana operates on a $600 million budget.
Just the school district, Santa Ana Flight School District, which is not the entire city of Santa Ana, they operate on an $800 million budget.
And it's always, it's never enough money.
They're always asking for more and for more.
That's because, you know, I always say, you know, we don't have a money problem.
We have a spending problem.
And what they do is they just buy things that they really don't need.
And the thing is, I believe, is that they don't talk.
They don't talk to the constituents that they're serving.
They just assume that this is what they need and they're going to take it.
Tell me about how decision-making is done in those City Council meetings.
How involved are the people that are on the City Council with managing the city?
And see, that's a tough, I would say it's a tough call for the elected officials because it's not a full-time job.
A lot of people think, you know, once you're elected that you're there at City Hall, you know, 24-7 and that's your full-time job.
But actually, I always say it's a full-time commitment for those that want to do the right thing.
But we're only there for meetings and pretty much when we go to events because what pays our bills is our 9 to 5 job on our own.
So it's very tough unless you have time to really Invest in reading the budget, talking to the staff, talking to the city manager for them to update you on what's going on.
It's very tough for somebody to be as involved because the Unless either they're retired, they'll have all the time in the world.
But other than that, it's tough for the elected officials to be there, but it shouldn't be an excuse because when you run for office, that's your commitment to the voters and to the residents.
So I would say, you know, even though you're in front of the public eye, say 15, 20 hours a week, most likely, but in I would say at night, on weekends, pretty much, if you really want to understand what's happening, you have to devote at least.
It's another full-time job if you really wanted to, but it's not a full-time job in compensation.
You don't get compensated for it.
And what about the residents?
So if there is one thing that people can take away from this, what do you think the residents should do?
They should be, even though they don't have to attend the meetings personally, I would say contact the elected officials.
All of them have their information on the website.
Communicate with them, whatever it is, your concerns that you have, because if you don't communicate with them, they're not going to know what's happening.
And I know that the people that really get everything The concerns addressed in the city are the people who are always calling the council members, calling the city manager, and the ones that are at different events and just pretty much, I would say, in your face.
But it's sad, though, because there's a lot of things that are happening in our city in Santa Ana.
And the people that need it the most, they're the ones that are not as involved.
Going back to how we started, it's because they don't want to.
It's because they're out there.
They don't have time.
They don't have time.
They're out there trying to make ends meet.
And unfortunately, the people take advantage of that and things don't get done.
So where are things going in Santa Ana now based on what's happening?
Budgets in the future.
And I've heard that more people are moving out of Santa Ana.
You mentioned some reasons behind that.
Well, Santa Ana, it's expensive, as any other city here in Orange County.
But the thing is, people can't afford it.
Our taxes are, like you were saying, our sales tax is the highest in the county.
We have so many bonds that we're paying for in the city.
And, you know, we're having bonds from the school district, from Santa Ana School District.
We have bonds from Santa Ana College.
We have bonds from Rancho Community College District.
And we have bonds, if you live on the left, you know, on the west end of the city, you have bonds from Garden Grove Unified School District.
What are these bonds for?
Can you explain to our audience what it means?
Yeah, when they go to the voters, they like to make improvements to our schools.
Make improvements to our colleges.
And what they do is they promise that they're going to have better infrastructure, better buildings, because this is the only way that we can compete with the rich cities.
So it's not going to cost you a lot of money.
It's only going to cost you a Starbucks cup of coffee a week.
But imagine if you have four or five Four or five bonds.
That's like every day, right?
Starbucks.
So that's like, what, another, what, $30, $40 a week and then you multiply it.
It's a lot of money that, you know, we're paying into our property tax.
And a lot of people don't understand how that affects us because those are things that are there for 30, 40 years because it's like a home.
They mortgage it for 30 or 40 years, so you're paying those bonds for that amount of time.
And when there's a bond that's coming up and it's going to expire, what they do, they go out to the voters again and say, no, we need more money because, you know, our buildings aren't, you know, they haven't been upgraded.
They haven't been upgraded for the last 25 years, so we need to do upgrades into our plumbing.
We need to upgrade into our lighting.
That's how they sell it.
So it's like we're putting our future generations into so much debt that, you know, they can't afford it.
So what they're doing, a lot of the families, because, you know, in order to stay here in Santa Ana, it's easier for them to move into the Inland Empire and for them to say, you know what, I can have a house here for the same amount of money that I have in Santa Ana for a two-bedroom apartment.
And so they're moving out and they're, you know, Santa Ana is not going to be Bringing in the revenue as much as they're thinking.
So that's why when people move out, you know, people don't, not shopping in Santa Ana, not paying taxes in Santa Ana, and then our liabilities are going up.
So our expenses are going up, our revenue is coming down.
Naturally, what we're going to have in about another five years, you know, our city could be facing bankruptcy.
So how can this, how can people in Santa Ana solve this problem?
Telling the elected officials, stop wasting our money.
Focus on the needs and the concerns that we have.
Make sure that you hold them accountable to the things that really matter to you.
Improvements in our roads, improvements in our parks.
That's the only way because if they don't, the way I see it, everything will go to other things that's not really as important to the residents.
But it goes into salaries and benefits of our employees.
It's going to go into our pension costs.
Ultimately, we're just going to be working for our employees.
We're not really going to be working, you know, we're not going to be paying taxes to better serve our city.
And it's a shame because Santa Ana, it's a great city, in my opinion.
And, you know, we have a lot of neighborhoods that...
They're very connected with each other, but the thing is, they keep coming, when I say they, the elected officials, the bureaucrats, they keep coming to us, we need more money to do this, we need more money.
They're raising our fees for water, they're raising our fees for the trash, and by the time we're done, we don't have enough money.
To really even, you know, take our family to restaurants.
So then our restaurants, you know, they suffer because, you know, people can't really go shop.
So it's a vicious cycle.
But, you know, unless we get involved as residents, nothing's going to change.
Do you have any other remarks?
For the residents?
Yeah, definitely just, you know, for you guys, for them to...
For them to really share their concerns with elected officials.
Because like I said, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
And unfortunately in Santa Ana, you know, they always say there's like Three sides of Santa Ana.
You have the north side of Santa Ana, which is where a lot of the nicer community is at.
The more affluent, the more higher socioeconomic individuals, residents in our city live.
And then you have south of MacArthur, closer to South Coast Plaza.
But then the inner cities, that's where a lot of, I would say, the resources are missing.
So this is where the residents need to get more involved.
And I call on everybody in the city.
To all of us to be united, you know, because we're all one Santa Ana, we shouldn't be separated by neighborhoods, and we all should be looking in the best interest of our city.
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