Spending $83,000 to survey residents is a good investment especially when compared to blowing $96,500 on a consultant to analyze why a local shopping center isn't making more money.

The survey (see story on page 1) is a bargain, in fact, because the cost is being split three ways between city hall, Conejo Valley Unified School District and Conejo Recreation and Park District. So it's only about $28,000 per entity.

That's the good news.

The bad news is our fearless prediction: Residents are in no mood for tax hikes right now. Whether you call it a city tax, a school tax or a parks and recreation tax, a special assessment district or whatever, hardly anyone has the stomach or the pocketbook for it.

The People's Republic of Santa Monica we are not.

Now is a lousy time to ask residents to give more money for government services. People are hurting. The economy is in gridlock. It's worse than even freeway traffic.

On the other hand, freeways during rush hours are less congested lately than they've been in years. We'd like to think that it's more people carpooling that reduced the traffic, but that would be wishful thinking.

Fewer people have jobs, that's why there's less traffic.

Instead of driving to work, they're looking for it.

Maybe we'll be surprised by the survey and people will say, "Sure, I'll pay more to keep Conejo Valley wonderful. Just tell me how much you need."

But don't bank on it.