Guest Commentary
by Tony Trejo
At a recent debate between candidates for North County’s new 76th Assembly District, candidate Rocky Chavez was asked about an April 6, 2005, vote he made regarding the city of Oceanside’s pension debt obligations. The vote was to pass a bond to refinance the city’s debt obligations.
Chavez responded by asking if anybody had refinanced their homes in the past 10 years, subsequently making the claim that his vote for the bond was to refinance the City of Oceanside’s existing pension obligations to save money. Rocky claimed that the bond saved the taxpayers of Oceanside one million dollars annually, though the potential savings estimated by the Oceanside Treasurer’s Office was merely half that.
The truth is that the City of Oceanside needed to borrow additional money in the amount of $36 million dollars to shore up its structural deficit. This was a problem no doubt exacerbated by the expansion of public pensions and other benefits, benefits which no more than two years earlier Chavez had voted to support (Oceanside City Council Records, 3-R30-1). This, mind you, in the midst of a pension underfunding crisis in the City of San Diego that threatened to bankrupt the city.
Chavez voted to increase public pensions and benefits for city workers. When the city didn’t have the revenue to keep the promises he made, his solution was to borrow more money, spread the payments out over a number of years, thus leaving the taxpayers holding the bill. This is the same pension plan proposed by Democrat Rep. and mayoral candidate Bob Filner in the City of San Diego before Prop B was passed overwhelmingly by voters. A plan Rocky Chavez thinks is a good one, and by his own admission would make “everyday.”
Trejo is campaign manager at Sherry Hodges for State Assembly 2012