The pressure to incorporate Rio Linda Elverta comes from the need to improve two basic municipal services; police protection and planning and land use control. Additionally, our community should be allowed to have the advantage of the financial benefits that municipalities receive. Because of budget constraints, the Sheriff is unable to provide adequate police protection. Response time to non violent crimes is measured in hours and sometimes days. The Northwest Division of the Sheriff's office covers over 100 square miles and over 110,000 residents. Sheriff patrols are not assigned to specific areas within the division but rather patrol the entire area and respond to calls accordingly. Since Rio Linda Elverta represents only 20% of the total area, we get very little coverage. The Twin Rivers Unified School District (formerly Grant Union High School District) that includes the Rio Linda Middle School and High School, employs 19 full time fully certified police officers because the Sheriff is unable to provide adequate police services to the schools.

The planning function needs to be controlled at the local community level and not by people who do not live or work in the community. The county general plan, which was prepared by absentee county staff, relegates Rio Linda Elverta to a bedroom community. Contrary to good modern planning where people are encouraged to work and shop close to their homes, the current general plan calls for no new industrial growth (no new jobs) and except for the Elverta Specific Plan, commercial development only in the existing commercial areas of downtown Rio Linda and Elverta. Further it is the opinion of the community that Rio Linda Elverta are getting a disproportionate share of low income housing and rehabilitation (half way) houses. None of this encourages or enhances community identity and pride.

If Rio Linda Elverta could incorporation, our community will keep our tax revenues in our community which can only lead to better municipal services. It is a well documented fact, that because of additional revenues available to municipalities and because of the aggressive pursuit of those revenues, that newly incorporated cities are able to quickly increase their services to their community. Rancho Cordova, the most recently incorporated city in Sacramento County had a general fund budget of $24 million in the first year of incorporation and by the fourth year the general fund budget was $42 million.

Over the past several years the community has attempted to raise the required moneys to apply for cityhood, approximately $300,000. Those efforts have been unsuccessful.