Prologue
When people voted YES many different things happen for owners of many different parcels. For some owners, who didn’t get ballots, nothing changed except some other people paid less taxes, and some others ones paid more taxes or a new tax entirely (than they all did before). This is a visual explanation, provided by City maps of some of what those YES votes changed. Remember, not everyone in the City got a ballot, there were seven different ballots, five cover letters, and the YES votes decreased some assessments, increased others, changed the method of assessment, created new zones, modified others, annexed additional properties, and etc. An attempt to convey all of these things will not be made here, by visual means or otherwise. Please forgive me for the incompleteness.
Annexation to District 1, Zone 2008-1
Some people were already paying an assessment for this. Those parcels are ORANGE. Most of those people didn’t need a ballot.
The people in the YELLOW areas probably didn’t need a ballot either, but they are in the City, but do not and will not pay this assessment, at least for now.
Some people when they voted YES were actually voting to be annexed into Zone 2008-1 (Major Thoroughfare Medians.) That means they would join the others who had already been paying for the trees and landscaping that has been added, to some streets, by the City. Those parcels are GREEN, probably because that is new revenue.Which Parcel Owners Got Ballots?
This colorful map came from the City. You can see it for yourself here. I did the best I could with a Magic Marker, but I never was any good at staying between the lines. The RED marker is on the zones that had changes, either up or down, or any of those etc.’s mentioned above. Not a whole lot in common. Most of them aren’t really next to each other, although they are all next to some zone, or in some cases next to some area that isn’t a zone,---yet, or maybe never. Please add to this, in your mind if you can, the GREEN areas in the map above this one. Remember, those green areas are getting to pay a new assessment for the first time. Most of the people in the RED areas will get a decrease in their assessment.
I’ll try to add another map at another time. But the City did provide a ballot package and a ballot that made it clear whether an assessment would go up or down if the owner voted YES.
In one of the emails I got from the City it said: ” After concluding multiple Proposition 218 ballot procedures, the City has experienced that most owners want the necessary information to help them make an informed decision, but the ballot needs to get to the point as well. To this end, after considering the information contained in the ballot package, property owners want to make the decision that is best for them, and that usually comes down to "how much more or less will I pay if I vote YES or NO." …. the customized ballots sent out on July 27, 2011 meet this goal.”
So maybe no one really needs any visuals…just to know if they will be paying more or less.