City is Charging a Total of $11.6 Million in Illegal Overcharges to Pay Lawyers and Consultants.
City of Beaumont 2017 Mello Roos CFD Special Taxes
The City of Beaumont 2017 Mello Roos CFD Special Taxes prepared by Albert Webb & Associates can be found on the City’s website under ‘Your Government/Transparency Portal/Open Gov/View Public Records/Beaumont/Public Records/CFD 93-1/2016/2017 Tax Roll.
The City of Beaumont is charging $24,717,075 in Mello Roos Special Taxes to pay $16,680,452 in Bond Payments, which leaves the City with an $8 Million Profit from the Bonds.
The City is also charging an additional $3,641,058.44 in CFD Services Tax for a total of $11.6 Million in illegal overcharges.
Can the City be stopped from charging any amount of taxes they want ?
Nope. California State Constitution declares that the charging of taxes can not be stopped in a Court of Law.
State Law dictates that the nothing can stop the collection of any tax regardless of the illegality. The only ‘option’ is to sue to recoup the money. The Citizens will be paying for the lawyers to sue their own City and the City’s team of lawyers to fight the lawsuit and drag it through court for years.
The Citizens of Beaumont could appeal to their Councilmen, but the illegal overcharge was unanimously approved and they need the money to pay lawyers and consultants, so it’s not likely there will be a sympathetic ear on the dais.
The Citizens have always had the power of Recall. The current Council should have been Recalled two years ago when they hired Pinkney without following State Public Bid Laws and unanimously approved retaining Urban Logic, but the Citizens did nothing.
So now the Citizens have a timeline; in approximately 3-5 years, after the State and Federal Investigations and Court proceedings determine that the taxes being charged are illegal, the Citizens can sue the City to recoup their illegally charged taxes.
But if the Citizens of Beaumont do not purge themselves of corrupt Councilmen they will have to sue the City every year to recoup illegally charged taxes because there’s nothing to stop government agencies from illegally charging taxes.
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE XIII TAXATION
Section 32: No legal or equitable process shall issue in any proceeding in any court against this State or any officer thereof to prevent or enjoin the collection of any tax. After payment of a tax claimed to be illegal, an action may be maintained to recover the tax paid, with interest, in such manner as may be provided by the Legislature.
(Sec. 32 added Nov. 5, 1974, by Prop. 8. Res.Ch. 70, 1974.)