Sutter County Supervisors are derelict in their duty by not funding Sutter County Fire. The Supervisors’ primary mission is to insure adequate emergency services. Their excuse of a lack of funding means they mismanaged the budget.
In 1993, Sutter County voters were deceived by politicians to support Proposition 172 (Public Safety Funding Amendment), a statewide half-cent sales tax. The ballot argument stated that “Revenue would be distributed to cities and counties for purposes such as police, sheriffs, fire, district attorneys and corrections.”
During the publicity campaign fire safety was a common talking point and visual incentive to convince residents to increase their taxes for adequate emergency protection.
Yet, since 172’s passage by 57.80%, Sutter Supervisors have disbursed no 172 funds to fire. That is 30-years of neglecting fire while receiving more than $300 million in 172 tax monies. Supervisors and County Administrator Steve Smith lie when they say fire protection is the number one priority.
People make trade-offs living in rural regions. Some prefer living there and others are there out of necessity. In Sutter County, much of the rural areas are agricultural where residents and workers farm and maintain the equipment / facilities that feed our nation.
There are fewer services, slower emergency response times, and limited resources. And rural residents are older and sicker than their urban counterparts. This fact presents an even greater challenge for emergency services and a higher risk for residents.
The large coverage areas, travel distances, and increased demand for time spent with the patient can lead to significant impacts on patient outcomes and survival rates. For example, the fatality rate from a vehicular accident in a rural area is almost twice as high as an urban crash.
Rural residents battling cancer, heart disease, accidental injury, chronic respiratory disease and strokes die at twice the rate of urban neighbors with similar maladies. Delayed responses to structure or wildland fires in rural areas can be catastrophic.
With State Farm and Allstate Insurance Companies withdrawing from the California market a closed Sutter Co Fire will likely trigger a fire insurance coverage crisis. That will hurt property values.
This all comes just three years after voters were again deceived to approve Proposition 19. Prop 19 was touted to help the elderly and give more money for wildfires and to counties.
It barely passed with 51.11% of the votes. To generate revenue, it gutted the property tax protections achieved by Propositions 13 (passed by voters 65%), 58 (passed by 76%), and 193 (passed by 67%). These protections lowered property taxes and allowed parents and grandparents to pass properties and businesses to their children without tax reassessment saving families hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Assemblyman James Gallagher and the Supervisors supported Prop 19. This was a boon for big government and a bust for taxpayers. Each year, this change forces many families to sell their inherited properties and businesses to pay the spiked taxes.
Sutter County government actions are following the guidelines of the United Nations Agenda 2030. This agenda advocates the relocating of the population from rural to urban areas into “stack and pack” housing. This allows for the rewilding of rural America by abandoning forests and farmlands.
Millions of people are leaving California which brings no sorrow to environmentalists. However, few realize that the greatest percentage of population loss has occurred in ten rural Northern California counties. Rural counties are being purged by government policies that starve people out.
What is laughable is the “leaders” noted above claim to be conservative while acting just the opposite.
The “Citizens’ Initiative to Save Sutter County Fire” can solve the lack of funding. This is not a new tax. It will instead repeal and replace the current fire parcel tax that was passed in 1997. That parcel tax had no inflators to keep-up with rising costs, and not every property owner was required to pay their share. Should the initiative get enough signatures to qualify for the March 2024 ballot and then pass, Sutter Co Fire gets a new life.
(Lou Binninger can be heard on No Hostages Radio podcast, live on KMYC 1410AM 10-1 Saturdays, read at Live with Lou on Facebook and at Nohostagesradio.com)
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