Tom Lodge for City Council

I’ve lived in Hemet for 36 years and have watched our community deteriorate into a place where even my closest relatives hesitate to visit. I am not one to waste time, and Hemet absolutely does not have time to waste If we are to turn our community around. I’m running for Hemet City Council because I know I can make a difference.

My entire professional life in facilities maintenance has been one where I quickly analyze and solve problems. I pay attention to details, and I don’t stop asking questions until I receive common sense answers.

My priorities for the City of Hemet Include:

1. Cleaning up our city. Anyone driving down Florida Avenue knows what I’m talking about. Property owners need to be held responsible regardless of who they know at City Hall.

2. Enforcing Measures U. Soft questions from the City Council go unanswered. I will do everything in my power to increase the number of patrol officers and keep the promises of Measure U.

3. Homeless. Hemet pays $1,500,000 annuallynto a company in Long Beach to assist our homeless population. Both the homeless and our citizens are being shortchanged. I will make sure we do better.

A vote for Tom Lodge is a vote for action.

With its self-serving promotion of this increase in the “hotel occupancy tax” the City of Hemet would like you to believe that the estimated $200,000 increase to the City’s General Fund will be earmarked for improving the homeless problem, public safety staffing, fixing potholes, and etc. What they don’t tell you, and what is absolutely fact, is that nothing in this measure requires the City of Hemet to spend this money on anything it wishes, including buying up more downtown Hemet real estate, more travel junkets to Las Vegas, and many other questionable uses of General Fund money that have been occurring in the past several years. The City of Hemet promoters should inform us of this fact. This lack of transparency speaks volumes.

As an Example, most Hemet taxpayers don’t realize that we currently spend approximately $1,500,000 with a Long Beach Company to address our homeless issues. Have you noticed any improvement? I haven’t. Also, many homeless are put up in local hotel rooms, paid for with taxpayer money. Is this a proper way to be spending our resources? We should demand proof of improvement and success from the existing spending of General Fund dollars before we authorize more taxation.

The last hotel to be built in Hemet was the Hampton Inn in 2006 – more than 18 years ago. The unintended consequences of this increased tax is to make existing hotel rooms more expensive and new hotel rooms less likely to be built. This hotel occupancy tax increase has not been thought through.

“The problem is not that people are taxed too little – the problem is that government spends too much”

Please join with me in voting no on measure N.

The current General Fund Budget of the City of Hemet is approximately $80,000,000 (Eighty Million Dollars). The increase in occupancy taxes with the passage of Measure N (according to the City’s best case projections) would add $200,000, a mere one-quarter of one percent to the existing budget. The City of Hemet states that this increase in occupancy tax is needed to “maintain quality community services without raising taxes on City of Hemet residents or businesses.” This statement presumes we citizens are currently receiving “quality” community services and that $200,000 will somehow maintain these services without the need to have further tax increases in the future. Unfortunately, neither presumption is true, and the City of Hemet knows it.

The City promoters completely miss the point. The message that this tax promotion is sending far outweighs the impact that it will have on the General Fund. There is a reason why no hotels have been built in Hemet for the past 16 years, but the City of Hemet is oblivious to their self-inflicted local market conditions currently impacting our community.

Instead of raising taxes, the City of Hemet should be working to clean up our community and make Hemet more business friendly. More taxes is not the answer, regardless of who pays them. Save the City of Hemet from itself. Vote NO on Measure N