Once again some Wildomarian’s are falling all over themselves in glee because they believe they will be receiving a gift from on high via Jerry Brown.

Newly Incorporated Cities — Four cities in Riverside County incorporated after 2004, making them ineligible to participate in the Vehicle License Fee (VLF)Swap mechanism.

The VLF Swap provides local agencies with property tax revenue to replace VLF revenue they lost when the previous Administration reduced the VLF rate from 2 percent to 0.65 percent. While the four cities did receive an enhanced share of the 0.65 percent VLF rate, that share was subsequently redirected in 2011 to fund public safety realignment. The loss of this revenue has made it arduous for these contract cities to pay Riverside County for public safety services—approximately $24 million is owed to Riverside County.

The May Revision proposes to absolve these cities of this one-time debt by reducing the reimbursements Riverside County must provide to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFIRE) for fire services. Riverside County will then forgive the debt to the four cities and the General Fund will backfill CalFIRE for its reduced reimbursements.

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf

All of this wordage is from the Governor Jerry Brown’s May Revision of the Proposed 2015-16 Budget on page 79.

This is a budget that still needs to be approved by the legislature without changes by the legislature and the Governor. And then it requires the County of Riverside to act in forgiving this debt.

To many times in the past city leaders have claimed victory only to be slapped back to reality.