Frequently Asked Questions

Why Create The Town of Oakhurst?

Creating the Town of Oakhurst means locally-elected citizens will be making decisions that affect our lives rather than others from Madera County who don’t live here. The same locally-elected citizens will have control over the revenues generated in the Town; local taxes will stay in Oakhurst to be invested in our community.

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Will Creating The Town of Oakhurst Raise My Taxes?

NO! California state law prohibits any incorporation from raising property taxes to balance the budget. Since Oakhurst’s revenues would exceed its expenditures, this is not an issue. Any "general tax" increases, if proposed, would have to be approved by the majority of the voters. In the future, any tax increase or TAX CUT would be decided by the people of Oakhurst.

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Is It True The Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis Indicates Almost $2 Million In Local Taxes Are Collected In Oakhurst But Spent In Other Parts Of The County?

YES! A highly respected, independent consulting firm, hired by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo), who specializes in evaluating the financial feasibility of creating new Towns determined:

• Creating the Town of Oakhurst is Financially Feasible.
• Almost $2 million per year in taxes generated in the proposed Town of Oakhurst never comes back in services to Oakhurst.

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What Is Revenue Neutrality?

Because the Oakhurst area generates far greater income in taxes than it costs to provide current levels of service, we are required by law to share those excesses with the County for a period of time. For a 10-year period, we will need to share current levels of excess revenue with the County, giving them the opportunity to replace that revenue from other sources. After the County is paid off, we keep the money to invest in our community.

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Will The Town of Oakhurst Be Financially Feasible After Revenue Neutrality Payments To The County?

YES! The general fund predictions call for us to maintain or improve current service levels and have excess funds to invest in the community—even after revenue neutrality payments to the County. Furthermore, after the payments are completed, we will have a significant increase in funds to invest in the community. Conservatively, we predict we can have an additional $20 to $30 million to invest in the community over the next 20 years.

What About Road Funds And Measure T Road Tax Funds

There is some very good news here for our local roads! All the current road maintenance districts that are overseen by the County will simply transfer to the Town for supervision. After years of not getting our fair share of the road taxes, we are guaranteed as a Town to get our share of Measure T road funds. The Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis predicts we will have $8.5 million to invest in road improvement in the first 10 years.

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Does Creating The Town of Oakhurst Mean Another Layer Of Government?

NO! Creating the Town of Oakhurst merely transfers certain governmental functions from Madera County to locally-elected and dedicated Oakhurst Town employees; it does not add any new layer of government.

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Will Creating The Town Of Oakhurst Impact Fire Or Police Protection?

NO! Other than improving the level of service we presently receive. Initially, the new Town would contract for the same existing level of services. In the case of police protection, we would contract for a dedicated Oakhurst Police Force rather than sharing our police protection with other parts of the County. Fire protection would continue to be provided by CDF.

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How Are We Presently Represented?

Under the County form of government, we have one representative who is also responsible for representing most of Eastern Madera County. Our representative is one voice on a five-member board of supervisors; therefore, having only one vote out of five in determining how tax dollars are spent. The other members of the board represent the areas of Chowchilla, Madera, and the unincorporated areas. All of our tax revenues go into the County general fund and these supervisors then decide where they are going to spend the money. It’s not hard to see why tax revenues are being taken out of Oakhurst and spent in other areas!

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Why Do We Have Such A Hard Time With County Governance?

The County form of governance is not designed to spend fully dedicated time on Oakhurst issues. They are responsible for the entire County and need to spread their resources across the entire County. When you have a situation where the issues of a mountain community are so significantly different from the rest of the County, it is impossible to provide fair levels of service to Oakhurst.

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How Would We Be Better Off With Local Government?

We would have people here in Oakhurst, either elected by the people of Oakhurst or appointed by the Town Council, working full time on our issues. The Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis factored in a five-member Town Council with seven full-time Town employees. Local accountability to the citizens will produce greater focus on local issues. This is unlike the County form of government where the four other County supervisors have no accountability to Oakhurst, and our County representative has only limited accountability because he is representing other areas within Eastern Madera County.

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Are New Ordinances Or Regulations Part Of Creating The Town Of Oakhurst?

NO! Once the Town is created, they will automatically adopt all the current ordinances, area plans, and regulations in place today. Many of us feel we can protect our rural culture better by having those decisions in local citizens’ hands than in the hands of people from Madera County.

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Will Creating The Town Of Oakhurst Mean We Will Lose Whatever Small Voice We Currently Have In Madera County?

NO! Just the opposite. This would greatly increase Oakhurst’s voice on public policy within the County. The Town can speak with legal authority far beyond that of individual, unofficial citizen groups.

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Who Is LAFCo?

The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) is an independent government agency in charge of creating or changing any local districts in California—from new Towns and annexations to fire districts. LAFCo oversees the incorporation process.

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What Are The Proposed Boundaries Of The New Town Of Oakhurst?

The proposed Town Oakhurst as approved by LAFCo is 13.1 square miles with an estimated population of 4,179.
Maps are available in the consultant’s report in the Oakhurst library and on this website.

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How Will Existing Service And Maintenance Districts Be Affected By Creating The Town Of Oakhurst?

Existing service and maintenance districts for roads, water, or sewer presently governed by the County will be governed by the new Town. This would mean people from Oakhurst would be dedicated to solving the problems within Oakhurst.

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What Are The Next Steps In Creating The Town Of Oakhurst?

The Madera County Board of Supervisors called for the election to be on February 5th 2008. At that time you will be able to cast your vote in favor of Incorporation and select five local citizens to serve on the Town council to represent you.

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