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Wednesday, 17 June 2009 |
 Amador County – The Jackson City Council on Monday approved a resolution authorizing the City Attorney to support litigation challenging the constitutionality of proposed state seizures of the city’s street maintenance funds. The litigation is championed by the League of California Cities, an association of city officials working to combine resources that may influence policy decisions that affect cities. Formally titled “Resolution Number 2009-26”, the resolution states that the “current economic crisis has placed cities under incredible financial pressure and caused them to make painful budget cuts,” among a number of other negative results of those impacts. Jackson received the league’s request last Friday and is the first city in Amador County to formally profess its support. “They want to help create an awareness with the public that the state is up to no good…and we chose to support that,” said Jackson City Manager Mike Daly. In his Fiscal Year 2009-10 budget, Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed transferring $1 billion in local gas taxes and weight fees to the state general fund in order to help balance the budget, and another $700 million in future years. Daly said the Governor’s proposals would effectively violate restrictions on the state supported in Proposition 5 in 1974 and Proposition 2 in 1998. The resolution states that the estimated $78,335 in local gas taxes proposed to be taken from Jackson “will seriously compromise the City’s ability to perform critical traffic safety related street maintenance.” The resolution directs City Attorney Andy Morris to “take all necessary steps to cooperate with the League of California Cities” and other parties involved if the governor’s proposal becomes law and “unconstitutionally diverts the City’s share of funding from the Highway Users Tax Account, also known as the ‘gas tax’.” Morris is also directed to send the resolution and a letter to the Governor and each legislator in order to express the “City’s adamant resolve to oppose any effort to frustrate the will of the electorate.” Furthermore, a copy of the letter will be sent to all other appropriate parties involved. The resolution was approved by council members Pat Crew, Wayne Garibaldi, Keith Sweet and Mayor Connie Gonsalves. Councilwoman Marilyn Lewis was absent. “We know that the states in a bind but local governments are in a bind as well,” said Daly. Story by Alex Lane
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