City Of American Canyon Online Community Forums

I was sitting at Canyon Cafe on Tuesday for Breakfast, and our Mayor Cecil Shaver was finishing his breakfast as I arrived. He is regular there, as am I.

Innocently, I pick up the latest American Canyon Eagle, looking for some entertaining copy to read while waiting to order. I starting in on the sales tax issue. It didn't take me long until I thought I had hit a misprint-

The County of Napa was to get in excess of 100 million from this deal(ok, its a huge county) -the city of Napa was to get in excess of 100 million from this deal- ( that sounded like a big chunk) and then- American Canyon- 7.5 MILLION! HUH- That can't be right-

I looked at Cecil who was engaged in a crossword puzzle and said-"Cecil, this can't be right- is this right?. Cecil looked up and asked me what I was referring to. I said " The city of Napa gets 100 million on this deal, and American Canyon gets 7.5 million???" Cecil looks at me in somewhat disgusted as I was and confirms those numbers are correct.

We then had a conversation about AC getting the short end of the stick( we used different words).

Everyday I see thousands of cars making their way through American Canyon going north in the morning, and coming south in the evening. Is AC Road all beat up from local residents- not near as much as the thousands of travels from the north end of the county coming through all week.

The funds needed here are WAY more than 7.5 million, and the disparity in revenue is strikingly unfair. AC is the second largest city in the County, and growing. Many of our roads are over20 and 30 years old, and 7.5 million is just not going to cut it.

More to the point, where do these people get off? Owe I suppose they will claim that Napa is a bigger city, has more roads, and so on. So. AC absorbtion of Napa traffic is demanding on our town and our roads.

I am not opposed to the tax increase as we have major transportation issues and traffic issues that do need to be addressed. But again, it is about FAIRNESS and EQUITABLE distribution of funds received. Right now, AC is about to get the crumbs left over, and that should not happen.

AC will as well continue to bring in tax revenue reciepts as our retail sector grows. Some will argue that Napa has a greater source of tax revenue, so they should get more money. Perhaps, but AC has a greater burden of providing an outlet so Napans can get out of their city, and highway 29 and AC road are the two biggest. Our side streets that run with Highway 29 are often congested with North County traffic trying to get around log jams on highway 29.

Giving 7.5 million to American Canyon while Napa gets in excess of 100 million as does the county, DOES NOT EVEN PASS THE STRAIGHT FACE TEST!!!

AC residents have no choice but to vote against this tax increase unless there is a fair and equitable distribution of funds. Per the recent article in the Eagle, we are a long ways away from that number.

Either way Paul I would have voted against it. We already pay a hefty gas tax for roads every time we pump gas. Remember about 5 years ago we voted that all the money collected from the gas tax had to be used for it. So what the heck happened. It passed. So why are we having issues. I believe taxes in the state should be distributed by the number of people in each area. I think it would balance out some of these problems we have in the state.

Except for the fact we have a huge illegal alien issue and no politician is willing to stand up and let the people know it is costing CA 10 Billion a year. It is just like gas. It is supply and demand. California has something like 3 million illegals from all over the world. Think about the amount of gas they are using. It is costing each and everyone of us at the pump. Limited supply of gas, higher gas prices. I could go on and on about this illegal alien issue, but your talking about the sales tax.

I haven't received my voter information yet. Is this measure going to be on for November or is it going to be a special election? If so we have to start knocking on doors, get people registered and give them the information regarding this tax debacle for american canyon.

The issue will not come up in November, and currently as I understand it, the measure is not a ballot item yet, but the plan is sometime in 2006.

Other issues are also not addressed as I understand it. As an example, if you widen highway 12- so what, unless you have two lanes going onto highway 80, it still funnels into one lane- so it is not clear what the benefit is there, except to have more room along the main stretch of highway. If part of the improvements included a barrier, I would support that. Recently here a Napa Resident who worked in AC died on highway 29 when his car went through the fence and hit another head on. This is why barriers are so important.

SOme want to extend Flosden or Newell all the way down to highway 12 to relieve traffic on the highway- ok- but the flosden newell road north of AC is a residential area, so again, that doesnt seem like such a great move either, -then there is this three lane highway 29 Cal trans wants to do.

What is not discussed, and should be, is a new road OUT OF NAPA over to highway 80- with its own onramp, away from the highway 12/680/Suisun Valley Road logjam.

The other issue is moving the truck inspection station farther down, as it backs up right there as well, creating further back ups onto 12 and 680.

But regardless of what is done to relieve traffic, the city that bears the brunt of it is AC- and therefor,AC should get alot more money than 7.5 million, or AC should kill the deal at the ballot box

If the money is right for AC, I would support it. Right now, its not even close- in fact, the amount offered is an insult!

Thank you for informing us Paul. This is absolutely outrageous!

Under this proposal/plan, Napa City gets $100m and Napa County gets $100m. Let's do some math to see where we really stand in our fair county.... Compare apples to apples, so-to-speak.

If the County were to spread their $100m evenly across the remaining other towns that exist in Napa County, AmCan WILL STILL GET the LEAST!!! From what I can figure, the already-pristine, entire single square mile of Yountville could be entitled to $3.7 million MORE than American Canyon will.

Here's how I estimated: Napa County's $100m divided by 8 towns, none of which are even close to AmCan's size or to Paul's point, are all served by AmCan as an access point to their communities... Those towns would each get $12.2 million while A.C. gets only $7.5. I realize that the county is not likely to spend their money quite this way, but for perspectives' sake, comparing/breaking down things this way seems to help illustrate our exact position as a city in this county.

I also may not have my geography/math right so here's how I came up with the estimation, someone please correct me if needed.
Other Napa towns:

- Calistoga
- St. Helena
- Oakville
- Rutherford
- Yountville
- Angwin
- Lake Berryessa
- Pope Valley

ie: Napa city gets $100m.
Each of the above each get $12.2m.
AmCan gets the $7.5m shaft.

The whole thing is ludicrous.

How is it that Napa is hell bent on making American Canyon its self-designated ass-end?

If the County is goinf to raise $100M then it should be distributed equally as a percentage basis for every taxpayer.
If Napans contribute 50% then they can get percentage, If AmCan residents contribute 40% they get that %. It's fair and equitable.
If this isn't the case then- the ONE finger salute and NO!

Well the council seems against it as well which is a good thing. The mayor wrote a letter about it, and several of the other council members were against it as well.

From what I could tell, there are a number of issues the council has, and it appeared they were not happy with the way the message was being relayed, so Cecil wrote a letter about it.

I brought it up in the first public comment session, the council hammered on it when it came up again, and another resident brought it up again later that night.

It seems like the council is on board. From what I gather, this is a document in progress.

More to come for sure on this.

Didn't Victor Rivera also comment on the tax too? He is against it also right? Why is he against it? Just wondering.

yes he was.

Well, since you asked...

I believe American Canyon will be short-changed on the proposed tax, the way the distribution is currently set up. I believe the city council needs to do the following:

a) Determine the road improvement needs for all current and proposed projects including
- Newell Road Extension
- Highway 29 expansion and improvements
- Oat Hill Roads
- Town Center
-any other required road alignments

1) Hire a third party to determine the TOTAL costs of the repairs and new road construction required to provide American Canyon with roads which are adequate for ALL projects currently under way and those anticipated the next 5-10 years.

2) What will the costs be at THAT time, adjusted for Future construction (2015)?

While $7 Million seems to be a large sum of money, if you consider the costs for all the projects listed above-We will be short changed, in my opinion.

Let's be serious- how often have costs come in on time and on budget? NEVER! Look at the fiasco with the Bay Bridge construction project?

My point is: Until all the costs can be determined and we have an appropriate price guestimate, the current proposed distribution for American Canyon may be grossly inadequate to fund our REAL needs, which are changing as the town grows. With the two, new Large projects (OatHill and Town Center) we need to be diligent about our needs and the costs to fund them.

There are simply too many unanswered ?s and missing vital components to determine the REAL costs to make an informed decision.
"Just wouldn't be prudent" in my best George Bush impression.

Until these ?s can be answered- I am against any new tax. Lastly, since American Canyon is the second largest city in the county-shouldn't we receive, at a minimum, what we contribute?

Since a majority of the other cities are built out, I would imagine their allotted fees would be used for pork projects and unnecessary improvements. We NEED a lot of new construction to accommodate ALL the traffic going upValley, as well as our city's expansion.

Thanks for asking.

Victor Rivera

Hey thanks for the insight. You are friends with Leon Garcia right? You did run his campaign. So if he is the representative for the city on this committee why is the city getting such a raw deal? I am sure you have spoken about it.

What has he shared with you? I don't see any replies other than here is what they are doing when I watch the council meetings. What is your take on this? Where is the problem? Is the county not listening to him or what?

If I was Garcia I would definately not want this issue attached to my name in the same year I was up for re election.

The latest Post edition's front page has an excellent article about the 1/2 cents sales tax proposal. It is written in such a way that I think few will walk away not understanding this issue. I know it clarified a few things for me.