The city of Compton Fiscal Year 2019-2020 is $34 million dollars short. The city has been able to pay down its debt with funds collected from Measure P, which was promoted as a tax to “fix the streets”. Street repairs became the focal point of recent elections for District 1 and 4.
Compton residents took to social media, and local news, to raise issues surrounding the potholes that litter the streets of Compton. Since the June 4th election, which saw an incumbent defeated, residents have all but stopped posting on street repairs and have turned their focus to the budget.
Residents have hosted city charter workshops, and have turned out for budget workshops and wonder how the city will shore up the $34 million dollar deficit.
Councilwoman Janna Zurita shared during her campaign that Measure P funds weren’t allowed to be spent until the city formulated a repayment plan for misspent gas tax funds. Once the plan was in place, Measure P dollars, are placed in the General Fund and used on Parks & Rec, paying down the deficit and a small portion is used to fix the roads.
Related: Compton misused gas tax funds, state audit finds
Some members of the council want to accelerate street repairs, via a bond, that will be paid back with Measure P. It is unclear the formula used to decide how much will go to the streets. With an increased gas tax hitting California residents on July 1st, it remains to be seen how much Compton will receive, against the amount they have to pay back.
Councilwoman Zurita is against a bond offset by Measure P. Many residents are also against a bond against Measure P funds.
That bond money is gonna go straight into the gen fund and be used to pay off the debts and still not fix the streets lol.
Maria Esparanza Hechavarria
Would placing a bond on it make that money exclusive to only street repairs or is it still gonna be used for everything else that measure p covers?
Why not find a way to bring in more revenue? If Code Enforcement and Parking would write more citations, that alone would bring in a lot of money.
Robert Louis Ray
If you look at the city manager’s presentation, the first few years use $1 million, then $1.5 million per year fro Measure P funds.
John Plantada
Incoming District 1 Councilwoman Elect Michelle Chambers supports the accelerated option to fix the streets.
During this election season, Chambers ran ads on KJLH Radio where she stated she supported accelerated street repairs. At the end of the radio ad she closed with “my name is Michelle Chambers and I support this message”. All of her radio ads featured her own voice.
When contacted by 2UrbanGirls about the radio ads we heard, and asked if she would vote in favor of a new bond, against Measure P, as stated in her campaign ads, and she had no comment.
We are still waiting for a response.
Compton Mayor Aja Brown appeared on LA Stories, on Spectrum News 1, and discussed how she turned a budget deficit into a surplus. Based on the recent budget numbers that is a serious misstatement of the truth.
The interview had to have taken place before the budget came out for journalist Giselle Fernandez failed to ask the most important question about the budget surplus which is “how was it achieved”?
Related: Compton’s Transformational “Millennial Mayor” Aja Brown
In nearby city of Inglewood, Mayor Butts also claimed he achieved an overflowing surplus which the Daily Breeze found to be nothing more than new debt pumped into the reserve account.
Will residents get an explanation for the conflicting account of the city’s finances?
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This is what idiots get for voting for measure p. No sunset clause. No language to specifically allocate the money for streets, but just voting on the hope that streets are gonna be fixed.
Street repairs? LMAO!! look for fund 1004. That is the measure p placed in an account to make it distinct but really general fund money that can be spent any way and any how the city wants.
Check out the proposed budget and look at public works. Any measure p money (fund 1004). Yeah, if you lchecked it out, you’d notice it’s pennies compared to the total amount of measure p received.
Check out the least few agenda items and look at the funding sources for some of the items. Measure p again.