Sand Dollars

SAND DOLLARS… Squid would like to extend hearty congratulations to the budget directors in each of Monterey County’s 12 cities for a job well done – each city has a shiny new budget prepared for the start of the 2023-24 fiscal year on July 1… Wait. Make that 11 of 12. Marina still does not have a budget. Instead, as other councils were making final adjustments and approving budgets, on June 20, Marina City Council adopted a resolution to “permit the city to continue to provide city services, pay city obligations and continue approved capital projects at the level established for the fiscal year 2022-23 amended budget until adoption of fiscal years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 budget.”

In other words, the resolution will allow Marina to keep operating until a budget is presented and adopted. It reminds Squid of all the debt ceiling drama in Washington; will they or won’t they be able to keep the lights on?

City Manager Layne Long tells Squid’s colleague that this is “not typical.” Long adds that a budget is expected July 5 – five days after the start of the new fiscal year, but who’s counting? As a professional ink-slinger, Squid is familiar with the concept of missed deadlines. Happens to the best of us! But when a city with a population of 22,000 and a staff of 89 is counting on you to meet your deadline… well, Squid’s glad that’s not Squid’s job.

THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH… Squid has it easy – the lair requires no cash payments, just an occasional battle in the predator-eat-predator world that is Squid’s habitat. Not so for land-dwelling humans, who need to fork over U.S. dollars every month for their piece of the American Dream.

A new analysis by the National Low Income Housing Coalition puts that hardship in perspective. The annual income needed to afford a studio in Monterey County is $84,480; a three-bedroom, $151,600. To be able to afford a one-bedroom (fair market rent of $2,194/month), you’d have to work 109 hours a week at a minimum-wage job.

Squid cannot work 109 hours a week due to Squid’s sleeping and daydreaming requirements. Too bad for Squid’s human colleagues then that Monterey County made the list of the most expensive jurisdictions in the entire country – it’s the fourth most costly place to live, exceeded only by San Jose, San Francisco and Santa Cruz.

To all of the NIMBYs who got their piece of property then did their damndest to make life difficult for everyone else, Squid gets it – you’d do well in predatory, undersea living – but Squid has an idea. Open your spare rooms (and second and third homes) to roommates. Squid will move in, and bring a lot of shrimp-flavored popcorn as a thank you.