Stop the State’s War on Cities

State and local governments need to work cooperatively to address the major problems facing California. But in recent years and decades the state has treated city governments more like adversaries than partners.

In theory, cities and the state are distinct levels of government with their own responsibilities. Cities provide local services like law enforcement and road repairs, while the state oversees universities, highways, state parks and other state services.  In practice, however, it’s a tangled mess. State and local finances are hopelessly intertwined, and the state has exploited its upper hand to reach into local coffers and take local funds. 

Let me give you a real world example that will surprise you: parking tickets. When I joined the San Rafael City Council, I was shocked to learn that the state takes a chunk out of revenues from local parking citations. Parking rates go up or services go down, even though the state has no role in local parking enforcement.

That’s just one way the state takes money from local governments, and it’s far from the biggest. The Legislature has used various schemes to take billions from local cities and counties in recent times.  With local governments wrestling with economic impacts on their own budgets, state funding grabs have led to deeper cuts in police, fire and emergency response, road repairs, libraries, senior centers and other vital local services. 

Local governments have banded together and fought back with ballot measures to protect local funds from state raids. The voters have passed these local control measures overwhelmingly, but the state finds new ways to take local funds. 

As a local elected official, I’ve experienced how this plays havoc with our ability to plan for the future. We can’t even balance a budget if the state decides later to take more local funds or to pass unfunded requirements to the local level.  Clearly, the state has been under huge pressure to balance the budget. But that’s no excuse for the Legislature to pass its dysfunction on to the local level. 

We need to do two things. First, we need to start untangling the overlap between state and local finances and service delivery. I’m pleased that Governor Brown is seeking to “realign” some services to give more funding and more control to local governments. We should expand this process. I think Marin and Sonoma know best how to make local decisions on issues impacting North Bay communities. After all, concentrating funding and power at the state level has not served California well. 

Second, we need to change the attitude in Sacramento.  State and local governments serve the same citizens, but too many Legislators seem to have an us-against-them mentality.  A recent state proposal to wind down local redevelopment agencies – already a touchy subject with cities – included $10,000 per day penalties and withholding of local tax revenue on cities that were even a day late submitting certain reports to state agencies. That’s the kind of hostile attitude toward cities that needs to stop.

In fact, there are many opportunities for cooperation between the state and local communities that are currently overlooked. For example, cities have helped the state meet shared goals of reducing greenhouse gases. Even as we seek a clearer separation between state and local services, state and local officials can work together on our common goals – educating our young people, keeping our streets safe, and creating a sustainable economic future for our communities.