The Menifee City Council is in a vice-grip. They did not plan to fail. They failed to plan.

Measure DD was sold to the voters as a 1 cent sales tax to cover for the State of California stealing Vehicle License Fees from Cities to spend on state welfare programs. Measure DD was put on the ballot by the city council without a sunset. Note, a similar measure in Hemet was adopted with a 10-year sunset.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise did a rare job of excellent coverage of a local issue.

Two men trying to repeal a voter-approved sales tax increase in Menifee turned in more than 3,000 signatures to the city Monday, April 16, hoping to ask voters if they want to keep paying it.

Former Menifee Mayor Scott Mann and resident John Smelser submitted to the city clerk petitions with 3,060 counted signatures, well above the 832 valid signatures needed to get the measure on the Nov. 6 ballot.

“Measure DD was sold to the voters of Menifee as a necessary action in response to the reckless fiscal policies of Sacramento,” Mann said. “The financial environment that led to Measure DD no longer exists, yet the council wants to keep and spend the money.”

If the signatures are approved, voters will be asked if they want to repeal the measure.

The city has 30 days to review the petitions and, if approved, they will go to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters to verify the signatures.

The “Republicans” on the City of Menifee City Council are making the usual sky-is-falling arguments against, but the bottom line is that they were unprepared to be challenged.

The Menifee City Council did not spend the money raised from Measure DD responsibly on top of the rest of the issues against it.

The political environment is also priceless. The Gas Tax / Car Tax hike is also on the ballot. Anyone running a bond or tax measure is going to have an even harder time than usual.

Lastly, I will predict that the City Government will attempt hair-splitting legal nuance to try and forestall this petition (which, ironically was reviewed and approved by the City Attorney), they will also attempt to nit-pick the over 3100 signatures submitted in some vain hopes that they can get it below 832. At the end of the day, the measure will go before the voters and the actions of the council and city government could make it even easier to pass than it was to get the 3100 signatures.

Note – city-wide vote totals in Menifee suggest that you will need 12-13,000 votes to get a majority. Note that the petition got 3100 signatures. This means that the petitioners already have 25% of the votes they will need to beat the establishment in Menifee.

To be continued…