If Measure A passes CARD will take on $36 million in new debt and two of every three dollars of the new tax will be spent on debt service. CARD failed to mention this in the ballot measure. Don’t voters have a right to know this before they vote themselves a permanent tax that increases every year?

In his pro-Measure A argument in the Chico ER police officer Jim Parrott tells us the state, not CARD, created the unfunded liabilities. This is not only untrue, it’s absurd and it’s particularly disturbing coming from someone sworn to uphold the law and tell the truth. It wasn’t the State of California or CalPERS that approved the contracts that resulted in the unfunded liabilities. It was CARD’s board. And to this day the Chico ER has not set the record straight on Parrott’s untrue statement.

Moreover, one of CARD’s board members who put up $6,000 to pass Measure A receives a six figure pension from CalPERS and has every incentive to insure money that CARD should spend on maintenance, programs and new facilities continues to get diverted to CalPERS so CalPERS stays afloat. There ought to be a law that prevents such a conflict of interest.

Despite what CARD and its supporters state there is no guarantee how the money is spent. In the ballot measure no amount is dedicated to any project and CARD uses conditional words such as unless and intends.

It would be foolish for voters to approve a measure backed by over $60,0000 from special interests that would result in a regressive, permanent, perpetually increasing new tax and tens of millions in new debt from a governmental agency whose leaders and supporters do not tell voters the truth. And it’s shameful the local media does not set the record straight.