Tag Archives: Taxes

P.G. Schools Welcome Google Overlords

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Cloud based laptops can be monitored by Google, better to shape your children’s minds.google-spy

And well, half a million bucks for 1200 laptops. OK, that’s $400 a piece. THEN SIX TIMES THAT FOR OVERHEAD? $3,000,000 to secure the things. What else could skools get for 3.5 million?

It’s only been two weeks since all third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at the Pacific Grove Unified School District received their Chromebook laptops, but students and teachers say they can see the difference.

“Before, we were only getting an hour a week (of computer time) in the lab,” Valdez said. Now, the laptops are locked up in a special cabinet in the classroom, ready to be used when Valdez needs them for instruction. And for the California Standards Test, which students are scheduled to take soon.

Pacific Grove Unified administrators rolled out 1,200 Chromebooks during the spring break, just in time for the state testing.

It is the first major purchase the district has made with proceeds from Measure A funds, an $18 million bond approved in November. The Chromebooks cost about $500,000 and about $3 million was spent on cabinets, wiring, security cameras and other technical support.

P.G. Schools Welcome Google Overlords

Are Internet Room Rentals Hurting Local Motels?

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A little. Bigger story is that they are getting away with not paying their fair share of tax. Then the tax collector uses the ‘no resources” excuse to not go after them.

I offer my plan. Have the parking enforcement department search the web and collect addresses since they are not enforcing parking anyway. Then impose a yearly flat tax based on number of rooms the house has. Should get enough revenue to hire someone at the tax collection office to actually collect taxes.

Pacific Grove inn owner Amrish Patel said the lack of regulation on sales tax for these rentals can create an unfair advantage.

“It’s not fair that we’re being taxed and they’re not,” Patel said. “But I don’t know how you can enforce that.”

The city of Pacific Grove prohibits renting out private rooms, but does allow homeowners to rent out their whole house if they get a transient use license. KSBW searched for rentals in the Pacific Grove area and found more than 150 renters listing private bedrooms for rent.

Monterey County tax collector Mary Zeeb said neighbors call in to report illegal renting but that her staff does not have the time or resources to check whether each renter paid sales tax on the revenue.

And what kind of P.G. homeowner would be opening up their house for profits with no overhead cost?Joy Colangelo STR
Sustainakook Joy Colon-Jello for starters

Internet Room Rentals Hurting Local Motels?

$3,000,000 To “Improve Water Quality” At Lovers Point

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Interesting. What is given up in order get bestowed with these tax dollars? No fireworks shot over the water?

Lovers Point Sewer Pipe

On Thursday, the state water board announced it had awarded the city a $3.3 million grant to fund part of a planned $4.8 million project aimed at improving a storm drain and sewer pipelines near the beach. The drain and pipelines are believed to be the source of poor water quality due to human bacteria contamination. The beach is regularly subject to public warnings and closure due to poor water quality.

$3,000,000 To “Improve Water Quality” At Lovers Point

Fruit Cheese Wants More P.G. Money To Spend

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Without oversight.

A council report says the $15,000 limit has been in effect since 1984 and probably earlier than that. The buying power of $15,000 in 1984 now exceeds when can be purchased with $35,000 today due to inflation, the report says.

There is a great range in purchasing limits in other cities, generally with higher limits in bigger cities with bigger budgets.

“The proposed limit of $35,000 is consistent with the practice of many other cities of our approximate size,” City Manager Thomas Frutchey says in the council report.

Fruit Cheese Wants More P.G. Money To Spend

Pacific Grove Sets Money Aside For Homeless

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Will it be like Monterey’s program that spent the money on more cops and bus tickets to elsewhere?

A report prepared by Fischer and Cuneo said a 2013 count estimated about 1,240 homeless people on the Peninsula, including 350 women and several hundred elderly people.

“Many of these people are capable of working their way back into being productive members of society if given some assistance,”

Last year, the Monterey City Council set aside $40,000 for homeless services, but the fund was tapped in October to provide $20,000 to pay for increased police patrols downtown and on Fisherman’s Wharf. The Monterey council previously agreed to spend $1,500 to buy bus passes for homeless people needing transportation.

Pacific Grove Sets Money Aside For Homeless

This Year’s School Tax Vote Fails

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Lots of taxes passed for ‘education’ and all I can see is parking lots and football stadiums.

Measure G Trash

In Pacific Grove, residents failed to pass Measure G, the Pacific Grove Unified School District-backed proposal that asked taxpayers to pay about $30 per every $100,000 of their assessed home value for tech devices and programs for the district’s schools.
But the measure, which had the support of the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association, fell short of the 55 percent it needed to pass, receiving 2,030 Yes votes (51.51 percent) to 1,911 No votes (48.49 percent).
Backers had said the funds would have been collected for 20 years in a series of short-term, low-interest bonds and would generate about $27.8 million for the district to purchase computers, electronic tablets — such as iPads — update security cameras, and implement statewide technology requirements for testing and learning.

This Year’s School Tax Vote Fails

Measure G – Another School Tax To Refuse

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Aint there enough tax dollars going toward things that are not basic education? Parking lots, football stadiums, district offices and now give tablet computers to every student?

This is just another example of the kind of thinking that leads to an appalling waste of tax dollars like spending $6.8 million on a refurbished sports stadium. And now they want to buy iPads for every student? PGUSD does not need new iPads for every student. Oh, and by the way, what percent of students in the school district don’t already have iPads? Does the school district even know? Does it care?

The fact that this is how they are thinking of spending Measure G money demonstrates that they cannot be trusted to use your tax dollars wisely. It should be an easy call for every voter to reject Measure G.

Residents on the Monterey side of David Avenue support it . .
Measure G In Monterey

Measure G – Another School Tax To Refuse

Another School Tax To Vote On

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This one is said to be for technology upgrades.

Do we not learn from stories about kids hacking school issued iPads and spending learning time watching twerking videos and clicking around on Facebook all day?

Taxpayers in the Pacific Grove Unified School District will be asked in November to pay for the technology — such as tablets for students and teachers — with a $28-million bond strictly designed for such uses. The money would be spent in intervals over time, such as every three to five years. The idea is to create a funding stream to replace worn or obsolete technology as needed.

Pacific Grove has about 2,000 students and would work with a local committee, with representatives from various groups, on how best to spend the money. The school system has various types of computers and would have to determine its technology needs.

28,000,000 divided by three years – 9,333,333. Divided amoungst 2,000 students = $4,666.00 per student.

(L.A. Times)
Another School Tax To Vote On

MST May Lose Federal $ And Cut Services

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Cut services or build fewer of those jazzy bus shelters? Thanks Transit Union.

Federal grant money accounts for about 25 percent of the agency’s operating budget.

California’s new pension reform law has come under fire from the Amalgamated Transit Union, which has called upon the U.S. Department of Labor to withhold federal funds from MST and other California public transit operators, the agency said Tuesday.

MST May Lose Federal $ And Cut Services

Not Satisfied With Prop 30 Tax, PGUSD Recounts Measure A

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How many more stadiums and parking lots do they really need?

The voters that favor more taxes for schools must be either parents of school aged kids or retired teachers. As P.G. turns more into a retirement village or vacation home town there are fewer of the former and not enough of the latter to make up for them..

The measure, which called for a $65 annual parcel tax, had 6,103 yes votes (66.37 percent) and 3,092 no votes (33.63 percent) according to the Monterey County Elections Office.

Not Satisfied With Prop 30 Tax, PGUSD Recounts Measure A