Looking for RNA Fair Play

In The Santa Barbara Independent‘s endorsement of Janet Wolf for 2nd District County Supervisor, you ignored the justice of Goleta’s attempt to recapture its tax dollars from the county. The Revenue Neutrality Agreement (RNA) that Mike Brown, Bill Chiat, and Santa Barbara County forced on Goleta at incorporation has taken more than $85 million from our small city of 30,000 in just the last 12 years. The annual $5 million currently extracted is about half of one percent of the county’s $850 million budget. Goleta pays what all other county cities do and then pays an additional 50 percent of our property tax share and 30 percent of all of our sales tax, which no other city in the county pays.

I have always considered The Indy a champion of the underdog, a newspaper that tries to create a better commonwealth for all the area’s citizens. So for you to dismiss Goleta’s RNA grievance against the county in such an offhand way is very disappointing.