Comments on: COMMUNITY COMMENTARY: Open letter to city officials

By: Kathy Jaray

Kathy Jaray — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:19:05 +0000

Mumbai, I’m not sure I understand your comment about getting what you pay for. I pay in excess of $14,000 in property taxes. How many Village Park, Leucadia or others on your list pay that much? The size of the property has nothing to do with personal safety for which we all pay our share through taxes. I think you’re a bit misguided.

By: Kathy Jaray

Kathy Jaray — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:14:24 +0000

Nicely written. I, too, am in Olivenhain close to the meeting house and I was at the meeting as well.
Perhaps a citizens group representing a majority of
Olivenhain might carry a little more weight. I will be happy to participate in pursuing this issue.

By: Mumbai

Mumbai — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:57:27 +0000

Mr. Crommet is correct; the homes in Olivenhain DO pay property taxes; but, because of the size of their properties, the homes on acres in the Olivenhain ‘tax rate areas’ actually garner much less than an acre in Village Park, Leucadia, Cardiff or downtown Encinitas.
Where an acre downtown might receive fire assessment taxes from 10 or 20 different homes, the same amount of area in Olivenhain can often garner only one assessment for the same sized area.
Nobody wants Olivenhain left without public safety, but the between last two Mayors from Olivenhain, their own leadership, Mayor Marge Gaines cut off cross traffic from Village Park into Olivenhain and the Christy Guerin added a half dozen STOP Signs that were NOT merited by traffic warrants specifically to make Rancho Santa fe traffic so unpleasant that she tried to socially engineer exclusivity.These moves were made openly with the blessing of the Olivenhain Town Council.
The assessments from homes in Olivenhain do NOT add up to paying for equal support financially through ‘tax rate area’ coverage. Self-assessment might be the only way for Olivenhain to get the kind of coverage that will satisfy residents of these exclusive and rural neighborhoods.
You get what you pay for.