Welcome to the Central Solano Citizen/Taxpayer Group (CSCTG)!
The purpose of the CSCTG is to establish a volunteer, politically non-partisan, organization of citizen taxpayers in Central Solano County. We are located in the City of Fairfield, CA.
The organization has two main objectives:
✰ Reducing the burden of taxes
✰ Advocating open and efficient government
Notice of upcoming events
Our Next Central Solano Citizen/Taxpayer Group meeting begins at 12 p.m. Friday, May 10th at the Benicia Grill II, 2390 N. Texas Street. Members and guests are invited for lunch prior to the meeting from 11 – 12:00.
We can’t list everything on this page so make sure to check the other pages for items that may be of interest to you. Many of the articles on our facebook page never make it to the website pages so here is a direct shortcut – The Tax Watchers Facebook posts
Local government meetings are usually listed Monday’s in the Fairfield Daily Republic. May 13th through May 17th – Week Ahead: Solano agency meetings.
You can also get local meeting links, agendas and videos on our “Get Involved” page.
CSCTG Tax Watchers and Friends “In The News”
The Tax Watchers: Coleen Britton – Integrity or pleasurable experience?
The Tax Watchers: John Takeuchi – How do we get out of pension hole?
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – Separate fact from fiction;
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – Separate Fact from fiction Part II
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – Abuse of First Amendment has grown.
The Tax Watchers: Carla Nelson – California needs to dump Common Core.
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – Where is the truth in today’s politics?
The Tax Watchers: Carla Nelson –Common Core or common sense?
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – Pros of tiny shelters to help homeless in Vacaville
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – The uninformed diminish our nation.
The Right Stuff: Jim McCully – Is border wall a real crisis or imagined Kabuki theater?
The Tax Watchers: Coleen Britton – Like it or not, we’re going.
The Tax Watchers: John Takeuchi – Time for politicians to think outside box.
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – What is future of Social Security?
The Tax Watchers: Carla Nelson – Election results a mixed bag.
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – Rise, fall of self-governments.
Dan Walters / CALmatters Commentary – Newsom will find stack of Brown’s leftovers…
The Right Stuff: Colleen Britton – Ballot shows election deception, legislation misrepresentation.
Solano Voices: Murray Bass – Voting is way to take control of government.
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – More common sense needed!
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal – How about some common sense?
The Tax Watchers: Barbara Pisching – Is lease leaseback construction method good for taxpayers?
The Right Stuff: Jim McCully – Who really benefits from higher road tax?
The Right Stuff: Jim McCully – Where’s the ‘accountability’ in Road Repair Act?
The Tax Watchers: Colleen Britton –Election reflections & ‘SOS’
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal and James Lewis – Progressive agenda: Are we there yet?
The Right Stuff: Earl Heal and James Lewis – Are We There Yet? Part 2
The Right Stuff: Colleen Britton – Make a difference this election season!
The Tax Watchers: John Takeuchi – Our take on June ballot measures.
The Right Stuff: Colleen Britton – Major California course correction necessary.
Solano Voices: Murray Bass – Citizens need to take back rule of law.
The Tax Watchers: Colleen Britton – There can be no justice without respect.
The Right Stuff: Colleen Britton – Foreign interference . . . Really!
Solano Voices: Murray Bass – Developers try to pull a fast one!
The Tax Watchers: Colleen Britton – Blurry line between citizenship, voting rights.
The Daily Republic: Ryan McCarthy article – Tax watcher (John Takeuchi) tells seniors “Day of reckoning is coming!
The Tax Watchers: Carla Nelson – Hard Facts of California’s New Gas Tax
Recent local government meetings and links with more details.
Solano Board of Supervisors schedules special meeting on RM 3 ballot placement – Daily Republic Story by Todd Hansen 2.18.2018
San Francisco Bay Area Restoration Authority. – Website and Measure AA info
Solano County Board of Supervisors – Agendas, Minutes, Videos of Recent Meetings
More Articles and Reports of Interest – Solano Board of Supervisors not pleased with County Fair Budget Report.
Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District / Citizens’ Oversite Committee for Measures C and J – Agendas & Meeting Dates
CSCTG member Barbara Pisching gave this Measure J report at our Feb 9th meeting.
The 2016-2017 Measure J Performance Audit will be available to the public on March 12, 2018.
There are four lease-leaseback construction projects to be completed this year:
1. Oakbrook Elementary – modernization and new administration building @ $8 millio
2. Public Safety Academy – new library and gym @ $22 million.
3. Suisun Valley K-8 – new library and gym @ $8 million, in addition to the new parking lot which was completed for $2.5 million.
4. Tolenas Elementary – modernize for security @ $3 million.
FSUSD Facilities Manager reported that the current commercial construction cost for public buildings is at $600 per square foot.
Lighting upgrades at Armijo and Fairfield High Schools are in progress and being paid as Prop. 39 projects.
Funding for future maintenance of Measure J buildings projects will be paid from an increased annual maintenance budget (Fund 14).
The CBOC will prepare within the next few months their annual report on Measure J spending after review of the Performance Audit.
End of report, Official Minutes of the meeting will be posted soon.
CA Gas Tax – CA SB 1 Transportation Funding; the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017
The CSCTG Tax Watchers are joining other groups in protesting this increase by attempting to get this legislation repealed in the 2018 Elections. Here are a few links to articles that may be of interest. HJTA – Gas Tax Increase With Novacaine
This article by Dan Walters on the CALmatters.org website shows the type of misleading information that is sometimes found in the titles of ballot measures at all levels of government.
Distorting ballot measure title undermines electoral system.
Coming Soon to a ballot near you!
November 2018 will be here before you know it and we will be keeping our eyes open for proposed legislation that will be of interest and concern to the people paying the bills; you and me! Stay tuned – more to come.
Several CA Measures are already being proposed; here is a listing of them. Most will not ever get enough signatures to be placed on the ballot but you can probably get a feel for one’s that might get a chance. – Initiatives and Referenda Cleared for Circulation
Propositon 13 – All Tax Watchers need to be vigilant for the near constant attacks on this legislation since it was passed June 6th, 1978. A good place to check it the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association. – Major Threats to Prop 13
This is not really a breaking story, more like a tidal wave that is about to hit.
“Stopping the Runaway Pension Train” BY CAROLYN COLEMAN – Runaway Pension Train
Some projects don’t end – such as Monitoring How Effectively Tax/Bond Money Is Being Spent.
Union Sponsored Project Labor Agreements (P.L.A.’s) – The unions are pushing project labor agreements on many projects which increase project and labor costs due to many union work rule limitations, decreased competition, which further drive up the costs to the taxpayers on taxpayer paid projects. The Central Solano Citizen/Taxpayer Group opposes Project Labor Agreements and urges government agencies to avoid such costly and burdensome constraints on their projects.
THE TRUTH ABOUT PLAs
TheTruthAboutPLAs is a project of Associated Builders and Contractors designed to track and disseminate news and relevant information about the detrimental effects of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs). PLAs are costly and discriminatory pre-hire construction agreements that effectively restrict qualified merit shop contractors and their skilled employees from bidding and working on construction projects. – TheTruthAboutPLAs.com
Citizen Bond Oversight Committees (CBOC)
Government at all levels are find it easier to fund projects with 30 to 40 year bonds for major expenses. This effectively doubles the cost of any project. In order to get these bonds passed citizens must pass these Bond Measures by a 2/3 majority. The requirement drops to 51% if the measure includes having a Citizen Bond Oversight Committee to oversee that the funds are being spent as stated in the measure was voted on. This sounds good but sometimes turns out to be little more than “window dressing” used to get the money.
California League of Bond Oversight Committees (CaLBOC)
Operational Guidelines for Bond Oversight Committees – CaLBOC Guidelines
We have more stories for Tax Watchers than we could ever hope to fit on this website. Plenty of good reading on our facebook page! Facebook – TheTaxWatchers