Class 26 Kick Starts

The first session of our class met at the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors in Soquel. The sun came out as our first speaker came to the podium, Fred Keeley, Treasurer-Tax Collector for the County, Our keeper of all things spread sheet worthy. Fred was a gracious and funny presenter- not easy when you think about what he has to work with. You've got to enjoy a presentation that begins with a short quip about Satan. Fred shared the Satan story as an example of how our illustrious leader Dave Vincent can find the a positive spin no matter what he's given to present:" Satan is always so stylishly dressed in his matching red and he works so well in his hot environ."

Fun facts to know and yell- courtesy of Fred: 12 percent of the collected property tax dollar is kept locally. 100 percent of sales tax is kept locally.

Our second speaker Dave Bailey of Bailey Properties discussed the challenges of  the real estate and investment subsets. A few rhetorical dark clouds, as he shared the image of people losing homes due to 40% of the homes currently on the market as foreclosures. As the economic melt down continues he forecast this number growing and leveling the real estate playing field from a speculative stand point. "You gotta look at the decisions you make and how they affect everyone as it's going to change the community as we know it." Wise words Dave.

Moving on from the historical perspectives of finance and investments we got a birds eye view of the upcoming changes in travel infrastructure from George Donero, Executive director and Karena Pushnik, Senior planner from the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission.


Details of the nearly finished SCCRTC acquisition of 132 miles of track from union pacific for an alternative commuter route, a carpool-rideshare project that is promoted this week and the allocation of federal stimulus funds currently serving the community with 12.1 M for "shovel-ready" ready projects to understanding how the two-counties share budgets for HIGHWAY 17 were topics of discussion.


The umbrella of services funded by SCCRTC include: freeway service patrol having served over 10,000 people over the last ten years. 511 system with transit information for trip planning.GIS maps to show neighborhood bike routes. See Community solutions.org to learn more.


The current HOV lane project on Hwy1. is in preliminary planning stages with eight miles of planned lane and nine interchanges.  Not your everyday challenge. Pdf files on all of these projects can be found on the website for SCCRT.

A huge thank you to our gracious host.  Kathy Hartman Santa Cruz Association of Realtors in Soquel. The coffee was caffinated, the temperature of the room just right, and the sun shone brightly. 

Thank you for orchestrating such a perfect day.