Last Tuesday, Marysville City Council pooled its ignorance, speculation of “experts,” and professional doubters to move forward with making Ellis Lake into a million dollar aquarium. This ‘Rube Goldberg’ contraption (approaching a simple task in a convoluted way) will sport 25 lake-bottom aerators, 2 compressors and chemicals. 

Yuba County residents continue to get bad news on the California bait and switch, tax and spend front. The No on Measure K Facebook site is tracking the approximate $8,000 a day in taxes being taken from citizens by the illegal sales tax that began in April 2019. As of October 8th the approximate take is $1,544,000.

The left worries not so much about the facts but the results obtained by pushing myths and mirages. They feel their hearts are in the right place so to hell with truth.

The media is quick to expose and snipe at religious predictions that don’t come to pass, like the specific date for the return of Christ. Cult groups have made dire pronouncements that missed by a mile, as well. Jehovah’s Witness leaders predicted Armageddon would occur in 1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994, 1997, whew, enough already. 

Once upon a time, California home and commercial property owners after working for decades to pay their mortgages / taxes, get their kids though school along with paying medical, food and transportation expenses, were being forced out of their homes and businesses by government.

An effort to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom has been authorized by the Secretary of State. Organizers have until February 13, 2020, to collect 1,495,709 signatures of registered voters to force an election.

Each year the state legislature passes more than 900 laws by finding something new the citizens are doing wrong. We started with the Ten Commandments but now have thousands of laws in the “Golden State” to keep us in check.

In 2018, County Administrator (CAO) Robert Bendorf and the Yuba County Supervisors made a determination to seek a 1% sales tax increase to “save public safety.”  The scheme to sell the increase as a public safety tax but then put it on the ballot as a general fund tax has undermined the credibility of the Board of Supervisors and the county administration. 

As Yuba County residents wait for a Judge Stephen Berrier decision on the legality of the Measure K sales tax measure, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Californians are benefitting from rulings elsewhere supporting Propositions 13 (1978) and 218 (1996) requiring a 2/3s vote of the populace for new taxes.

On June 6th 1978, 62.6% of California voters passed Proposition 13, People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation, also known as the Jarvis-Gann Amendment. It amended the Constitution of California changing how taxes were assessed on real property and how taxes are raised in the state.

Liberals have had their way for many decades in the retreat from managing forests, no thinning brush or removal of dead trees. The idea is that humans are bad for the earth and need to be restrained and relocated in stack and pack housing, leaving the “wild” to creatures and a nature utopia. 

While California schools are at the bottom in terms of academic performance they are one of the leaders in legal settlements for sexual abuse of children by school employees. Unions make it nearly impossible to fire a teacher but if accomplished it costs taxpayers an average of $500,000 and several years.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will pay $22 million to settle lawsuits by 16 current and former students who were sexually abused by two coaches.

Last Tuesday night the Marysville City Council rejected a proposal by rice farmer Charlie Mathews and former City Councilmember Dale Whitmore to once again pump fresh Yuba River water to Ellis Lake. Mathews was to contribute $10,000 and Whitmore $1,500 along with collaborating with all entities (Yuba Water Agency, State Water Resources, PG and E and the city) to make the lake clean once again.

CalPERS, (California’s Public Employment Retirement System), the largest pension plan in the nation ($370 billion in assets), is in the news every week somewhere. It’s a fiasco, but that is California these days.

You pay more than 100 different taxes each year with the understanding that government will take care of business.  In the post war 1950s through the 1970’s amazing modern cities, airports, roadways and water projects were developed preparing us for the future. The world was in awe of America.

In 2016, Marysville, CA., 12,000 plus in population and 3.6 sq. mi. in size, was going bankrupt following decades of businesses leaving the city. In spite of shouldering millions of dollars in devastating long-term real estate debt the city council determined to continue funding its own police and fire departments rather than contracting out for services.

Yuba County Administrator Robert Bendorf and his County Supervisors wanted their cake and eat it too when it came to the Measure K Sale Tax. Their private lobbying, town hall meetings, mailers, social media postings and signage sold the Measure as a Public Safety Special Tax that would be restricted to a special fund.

In June 2018, the Sutter County Grand Jury (GJ) refused to sign a severely edited version of their work and resigned. Therefore, no GJ report was available for the public. 

Americans often see a problem; get the cause wrong, and then the solution as well. Years ago, China could not feed its population due to centralized control of business and agriculture. Slow Americans concurred with China’s forced abortion one-child policy because Americans thought the problem was too many people rather than a lack of productivity.