Measure A is bad for the city

Measure A should either be killed altogether or changed rather than extended as it is because Measure A exempts "low and moderate-income families" from any restrictions in the number of houses or rental units that can be built.

And why is that so bad for T.O.? Because it will cause an influx of poor people into our town, right when our housing prices are dropping, we're having layoffs and the general global economies are going into a big correction--all of which augurs ill for our incomes.

Large numbers of poor people, with and without subsidized housing, force us to increase our social services and police forces because of their free healthcare demands, teenage pregnancies, high crime rates, drag-down effect on school literacy and a myriad of other ills that all add up to one thing: higher taxes for us.

This is not the time to saddle T.O. with higher taxes. Nor is this the time to engage in welfare socialism. But keeping this unfair privilege for the poor when all of our burdens are increasing is not even socialism--it's suicide.
John Barchilon
Thousand Oaks