Chico Taxpayers Association

That is a question I’ve asked myself and maybe you guys about one thousand times – why do we put up with this shake-down? Here’s a good read –

https://www.naturalnews.com/2025-03-24-scam-income-tax-purchase-tax-property-tax.html

“Citizens are subjected to multiple layers of taxation on their income, spending, possessions, and estate – including income tax, sales tax, property tax and estate tax –which is unjust and exploitative.” Again, I’ll say, it’s a SHAKE DOWN! They do it because THEY CAN! They do it because WE ALLOW THEM TO DO IT.

In Chico I believe Measure H passed because most of our voters here are either public employees or attached to public employees, who are the only people who are benefitting from that measure. The signs you saw on Bruce Road were probably paid for with Measure H money, but the rest of that job was funded with state and federal grants. Measure H goes into the General Fund which is completely unrestricted, only to be transferred into the Pension Stabilization Trust.

The city claims they are taking in about $24 million a year off Measure H – look at the budget – they just spent $18 million on the pension deficit.

Here’s another question – why do we pay for parking Downtown, when there’s no guarantee of security or any added convenience? Not to mention retail areas all over Chico that provide FREE PARKING.

A friend of mine just found out how much Chico PD is worth – the victim of a hit and run accident, he turned to the cops for help. I’m sorry, I learned a few years ago – the cops like to think of themselves as victims, they don’t have any time to help anybody else. When I asked a cop a question after we’d called him to report a crime, he said exactly this – “I don’t care....” I think that pretty much sums it up.

You don’t get what you pay for, you get what you are willing to accept.

My neighbor gets the Sunday print edition of the Enterprise Record, which he hands over to me as soon as he has read the stuff he’s interested in – mostly the obits. I read it slowly, as I spread it out under my cat dishes. Yeah, the obits are always interesting, but I like the editorial page.

Seems Editor Mike Wolcott is concerned about what he sees as an unfair negative impression “social media” is spreading about Chico. Retired CSUC public information officer Joe Wills joined in, insinuating misinformation is being spread around about our fair city.

Two guys who have made their living making bad things look good, that’s just too funny. Wolcott is not a journalist, he’s an ad salesman. Selling ads depends on making your advertisers happy, not investigative journalism. Wills is a “damage control” wizard. He worked for Chico State when Playboy declared the college “Number One Party School” over out of control parties, through the Pioneer Days riot, various hazing scandals and drinking deaths, years of Halloween, racist attacks, and other dark days. He was the guy who had to put the fire out with the media and convince parents from other towns that Chico State was a good place to send their 18 year old kids. These two have made their careers out of turning shit into Shinola.

I get most of my news from Butte County Fires and Crimes on Facebook. They have 24 hour reports about what is actually going on in Chico, including weather and road closures, with submissions from members who send in photos, videos, official alerts from local agencies, even ring camera footage. No, they’re not journalists, but they have a lot more current useful information. And yeah, you see a lot of negative stuff you don’t see in Wolcott’s paper or on local news – shootings, car thefts, break-ins, doorstep thefts, etc, etc, etc. Having these two men tell us we are making this crap up is just insulting.

It’s a fact that the crime rate in Chico has gone up dramatically over the last 10 years while the city has hired more cops and raised their salaries and benefits to unsustainable heights.

It’s a fact that the Shelter Crisis Designation has cost Chico Taxpayers millions of dollars, money down a legal rabbit hole, with no end in sight, just homeless camps popping up all over town and drugs overdoses becoming every day ordinary.

It’s a fact that while housing construction has continued unabated the price of those houses has continued to go up, out of reach for working people.

It’s a fact that while new housing is being built on the fringes of the city with new roads and new sewer lines, older neighborhoods are suffering from blight and neglect, potholed roads and inadequate or nonexistent sewer lines.

It’s a fact that while the city divvied out American Rescue funding to design and build “parklets” for Downtown businesses, the sewer lines running under Downtown streets, more than 100 years old, are in dire need of replacement, and no funding in sight.

I’m sorry Mike, you’d have to be a magician to put lipstick on that pig.

I had an experience at the Raley’s on Skyway yesterday that made me decide I won’t be shopping there anymore. I had a similar experience at Safeway a few years ago and have not shopped there since, even though that store was located an easy bike ride or walk from my house.

I’ve been shopping at Raley’s on Skyway for about 35 years. It’s more expensive, but traditionally their in-store brands are cheaper and they have always had good sales. Their produce has usually been better than the discount stores. For the last couple of years we’ve been taking advantage of their online coupons.

I won’t talk about the decline of customer service, that’s probably a matter of my own opinion. I won’t talk about their prices, which have always been higher than other stores. But what I saw yesterday is becoming a public safety problem.

As we moved toward the shortest checkout line, we noticed the man in front of us was pretty wildly dressed – he was wearing mismatched clothes, layered on, shorts over pants, etc, and he had a pile of clothing in his cart. He pushed his cart past the checker and began sorting his purchases, all mingled in the pile of clothes, out onto the counter. He handed the checker a plastic card. The checker ran the card and told the man it was no good. The man insisted he run the card again. No good again. My husband and I looked around the room, the other checkers had longer lines, so we stood patiently while the checker tried the card again. He finally called a manager over, and as the manager passed the customer’s cart, he dug into the pile of clothing, pulling out a huge bottle of what I would call Rotgut – cheap vodka with high alcohol content. “Have you paid for this …?” asked the manager. The man became defensive – “that’s mine, I brought that in here...” The bottle looked sealed from where I was standing, but the manager just placed it right back in the cart as he took the purchases that the man was not able to pay for – including more booze.

As the shoplifter left the store unhindered, my husband asked our checker, “so you’re not going to call the police, you’re just going to let that guy leave the store with that stolen bottle of vodka?”

The manager answered, saying they had no proof the man had stolen the bottle. Here’s what I think – the manager just didn’t want to be bothered. He knew he would have to hold the man in the store while he waited for cops who might not show up for hours. Then he would be convinced to drop the charges because he had no proof.

Here’s what I think Raley’s needs to do – they need to re-institute “floor walkers” as “risk management”. When they see people like this man come into the store with a cart full of stuff, they need to engage these people and watch them more closely. A polite “may I help you” would do alot to drive these serial shoplifters out of stores.

Instead they tack the cost of these crimes onto the price of your groceries. That’s the economic problem.

Here’s why it’s a public safety problem – when I witnessed a shoplifter stealing bottles of wine off the shelves at Safeway on Mangrove, he almost knocked my kids and I down trying to run out of the store. The manager gave pursuit, I felt like things were in control. But as I left Mangove Plaza with my purchases, there was the shoplifter, laying on the sidewalk next to Kwando, having polished off two big bottles of cheap wine, laying there in a puddle. The manager had just kicked him out of the store with the booze, didn’t even call the cops to escort him off the property.

“Drunk in public” is a crime. Shoplifting is a crime. Drunk driving is a crime – are you also aware, it’s illegal to ride your bike drunk. Why is Chico so soft on booze crimes?

Furthermore I’ll ask, why would a grocery store like Raley’s have such a hoooooooge booze section? Competing with Bev Mo? Maybe grocery stores shouldn’t be allowed to sell hard liquor?

Ask yourself why you put up with this stuff.

Such a kerfuffle about allowing cameras into “the Oval” – wow, it’s about time. We finally see how these people wheel and deal at our expense. We finally see that they are no better than a pack of playground bullies. This is why other presidents have kept us out, I hope Trump will continue to open these meetings.

I think we should have cameras posted all over the White House, maybe even body cams on politicians. Why would anybody think it’s okay for these people to work behind closed doors? Making decisions that could ruin our economy, start wars, while holding the American public off by the forehead?

That was what January 6th was all about, letting these demagogues know they are not better than us, they don’t represent us, and they need to get off their high horses and do their jobs.

We’re not children, and we need to stop allowing these people to shove us out of the discussion. In Chico, we are kept out of the major discussions while our town continues to slip into the toilet. The biggest economic topic in our town is the employee contracts. We do not know what deals are made between council members and employees because collective bargaining rules keep the public out of the meetings.

A few years ago, a scheduling change put a bargaining session with Chico Police Officers Association in the room where another meeting had been scheduled When I walked in the door expecting the Economic Development Committee, a Chico police officer jumped out of her chair with an alarmed look on her face and quickly pushed me out the door, then escorted me out of the building. Not so much as an “excuse me... “, just told me I had to leave because the meeting was “restricted…” Just outside the building I caught City Clerk Debbie Presson and Ass Clerk Dani pushing a fully loaded catering cart, covered with sandwich meat and bread, into the meeting. Yep, that’s the tempo, low and slow… no public allowed at their little union parties.

Citizens are also kicked out of council meetings for the “closed agenda” meetings between council and employee union representatives. Why? What don’t they want us to see or hear?

Here’s a thought to take away – the employee unions are the biggest contributors in every council election. PG&E is another huge contributor. What are council’s real priorities?