Pomona’s budget proposal, with an almost 70 percent tax increase, surely would make eyes bulge and taxpayers weep anywhere but Pomona. The bulk of that hike is for legal fees as the village and the Rabbinical College of Tartikov’s legal wranglings. Tartikov wants to build a college to train rabbis for the religious courts. The students, who would already be rabbis and would be married, many with children, would undertake a 15-year course of study. They, and their families, would live on campus during their studies.

That village taxpayers would, especially in this $4-a-gallon-for-gas economy, be willing to back their own massive tax increase is a little shocking. Even Pomona Mayor Nick Sanderson said he expected some argument when he introduced the spending plan, even though he had widespread support when he ran last year on a pledge to stand by the village codes as details of the Tartikov plan began to leak out. Even before election day, he and his runningmates had top-notch legal advice for a battle that already had promised to enlist the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Of course, Tartikov’s legal team is mighty impressive, too. Looking at the list of attorneys for both sides is like reading a RLUIPA Who’s Who.

“It is surprising. Really surprising,” Sanderson said as he noted that as far as he could tell, the public meeting showed great support for the growing legal cost part of the budget. “I fully expected an argument.”

But, he said, he realizes why he is where he is, and why he’s doing what he’s doing: “I honestly believe that a year ago, I won the election on a mandate to mount a defense …. What we’re not going to negotiate is our local codes.”