Fix the Budget First! Vote NO on FF · GG · HH
BASTA! (Berkeleyans Against Soaring TAxes!) – Who Are We?
Neighborhood organizations and residents from all walks of life, across our beloved City who believe that Berkeley can balance its budget without any new taxes. The City of Berkeley collects 3-4 times as much money per resident than our local cities. Berkeleyans continue to pay the highest city and County taxes in the State.
The Mayor and City Council failed to get our message in November 2004 when residents, with the help of the Berkeley Fire Fighters’ Union, nixed the plan to raise taxes in the form of a usurious parcel tax. This is why BASTA! – Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes, has organized a campaign to educate voters, and mobilize once again to freeze our taxes to current levels, and to force the City to cut the fat and manage its budget in a responsible manner.
Some of the Neighborhood Organizations Opposing the November Tax Measures Are:
Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations – BANA
Berkeley Can Do Better
Berkeley Property Owners Association – BPOA
Black Property Owners Association
Blake and California Neighborhood Association – BCNA
Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association – CENA
Council of Neighborhood Associations – CNA
Le Conte Neighborhood Association
Oregon Neighborhood Crime Watch
Stanton Neighborhood Association
The Board of North East Berkeley Association
Tyler King Neighborhood Association
NO on City of Berkeley 2008 Ballot Measures -
Measure FF: Library Bond
Measure GG: Fire Protection and Emergency Response and Preparedness Tax
Measure HH: GANN Limit Override Renewal for Parks, Library, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and Emergency Medical Services For Severely Disabled Persons
Contact Information
Phone: 510-849-4619
Mailing Address: 1532 Blake Street, Berkeley CA 94703
Email: campaign@berkeleytax.org
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Neighborhood Health Services-Patrick Wiggins and Otis Kirksey
Neighborhood Services – Neighborhood Development Division Part 2
JWB has a new department called Childrens Neighborhood Services. Trenia Cox and Danielle Ricciardi join Benjamin Kirby in studio to explain what they do.
Louisville Asset Building Coalition (Nikki Gardner, Andrea Merriwether, Vicki Collins) present their Neighborhood Institute class project for the Fall 2007 class session.
The City of Watsonville and Save Our Shores would like to invite you to be part of this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day. 
After recent negative news coverage regarding the Commerce City Clear View Motel situation, City Council Member Reba Drotar tells positive story about the Commerce City Neighborhood Services.
Universal Health Care Centers — Are Physicians Doing Their Part? / Video. Film on why health care workers and health care centers are needed to care for the uninsured, homeless and poor. From the public domain film, “A Right to Health”. Creative Commons license: Public Domain. Universal health care is health care coverage that is extended to all eligible residents of a governmental region and often covers medical, dental, and mental health care. These programs vary in their structure and funding mechanisms. Typically, most costs are met via a single-payer health care system or national health insurance. Universal health care is provided in all wealthy, industrialized countries, except for the United States. It is also provided in many developing countries and is the trend worldwide. Universal health care is a broad concept that has been implemented in several ways. The common denominator for all such programs is some form of government action aimed at extending access to health care as widely as possible. Most countries implement universal health care through legislation, regulation and taxation. Legislation and regulation direct what care must be provided, to whom, and on what basis. Usually some costs are borne by the patient at the time of consumption but the bulk of costs come from a combination of compulsory insurance and tax revenues. Some programs are paid for entirely out of tax revenues. In some cases, government involvement also includes directly managing the health care system, but many countries use mixed public-private systems to deliver universal health care. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system. The government directly covers 27.8% of the population through health care programs for the elderly, disabled, military service families and veterans, children, and some of the poor, through Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and TRICARE. Indirectly, various governmental entities in the United States also contribute towards the healthcare coverage of many millions of federal, state, and local government employees and their families who are covered by traditional employer-based group insurance coverage with insurance premiums often substantially subsidized by the government employer using public tax revenues. Federal law ensures public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. However, this unfunded mandate has contributed to a health care safety net that some analyses say is increasingly strained. Certain types of medical spending and particularly health insurance benefit from significant tax subsidies; in particular, employer-sponsored health insurance is a non-taxable benefit. In all, government spending accounted for 45.1% of total health spending in the U.S. in 2005. Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15% of GDP, the highest in the world. A study of international health care spending levels in the year 2000, published in the health policy journal Health Affairs, found that while the U.S. spends more on health care than other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the use of health care services in the U.S. is below the OECD median by most measures. The authors of the study concluded that the prices paid for health care services are much higher in the U.S.. An estimated 84.7% of citizens have some form of health insurance coverage, either through their employer, purchased individually, or through government sources. The number of uninsured, at 45.7 million in 2007, decreased slightly from 2006, because government programs covered nearly 3 million more people. It is projected that the current economic downturn and rising unemployment rate likely will cause the number of uninsured to grow by at least 2 million in 2008. One study estimates that about 25% of the country’s uninsured, or roughly another 11 million people, are eligible for government health care programs, but they are not enrolled. However, assuring adequate financing to cover those who are eligible remains a challenge.
We first met the Community Services Unlimited folks at the Just Us For Food Justice Bioneers day. They told us we should come check out their work in community gardening in South Central LA. How could we not? These folks are on the front lines of urban gardening in an LA neighborhood most famous for violence. The work they have done transforming empty lots and street abutting school yards into luscious, cornucopias of food and beauty is awe inspiring. They hold weekly workshops at each garden site to get folks involved and to taste goodies from the garden as well as local farmers’ wares. In an area of town where the only food resources tend to be liquor stores and fast food joints, CSU is a welcome addition empowering residents to grow their own and take action for food justice.
Eugene Davidovich speaks before the Public Safety Neighborhood Services Committee of the San Diego City Council. At the July 8th meeting the committee composed of Todd Gloria, Tony Young, Sheri Lightner and chairwoman Marti Emerald recommended re-opening the medical marijuana task force in San Diego.