Thanks to The Dude, for introducing me to Ramin RealTalk.
According to his youtube site, Ramin Ekhtiar is a loan officer located in California. And he’s even more pissed off about the pensions than I am. Go Ramin! Take a minute to listen to his post “They got the pension, you got the bill…”
Yes, I saw that Mark Sorensen is tucking his tail and jumping the ship that he has sailed onto the rocks. He’s been at the head of the ship for years – first, as city council member, then mayor, and finally, a very lucrative jaunt as city manager – very profitable for Mr. Sorensen, not so good for city of Chico. He will retire with 70% of his $211,000+ salary.
Meanwhile, those of us not hooked up to the public teat struggle to keep up with the tax increments, the petty but steady increases in our utility rates, and the ever-increasing “quality of life” crimes and gawdawful traffic. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a zombie movie.
Speaking of taxes, my husband and I had a heck of a time paying our latest installment of property taxes this year. It’s been a long-time tradition for me to mail our property tax payment the Monday after Thanksgiving. Never had a problem. Until this year. We always use the county website to make sure that our payment has been posted by the tax collector. This year, it just didn’t turn up, didn’t turn up. So when December 10th rolled around, my husband was finally able to contact the office – our check had not arrived, and the employee recommended we just pay it online, with a fee, of course. The county employee said that if they received our check they would send it back to us. (yeah, by way of the same post office…)
She also went on at length about what a pile of shit the post office is these days. Like I need a lecture from some sack of a county worker about how crappy the post office is.
This is asinine. You take your tax payment to the post office and hand it over to the staff, and it still can’t make it to Oroville within a week and a half?
Yes, by jiminy, it’s Christmas – and we ordered our gifts online. When my son’s gift arrived here on December 9th, we realized, the size was way off – our mistake. But Amazon has a great return process. We immediately got busy with the return process, and ordered a new item at the correct size. Wow, maybe Amazon should run the post office – we received the replacement on December 12th. The package we returned was received and posted on our account by the 15th. No fees, no fuss.
Our government is insubordinate. When you look that word up you also get “churlish” – yes, public employees are just plain rooooooood!
In these days of lawlessness and disorder, we have to stick together and hold our position. My position is, I will not spend a taxable dime in Chico, or Butte County. We actually went to Orland last week to do some last minute shopping. Orderly little town, great “antique stores”, felt safe leaving our car on the street. Yes, they have a penny sales tax, but that hardly matters when you are buying tiny trifles at the thrift store. I got some incredible vintage Christmas cards and handmade soap, less than $10. Went to the Farwood Grill and where my husband and I split a ginormous BLT – local bacon, on REAL bread. Picked up 20 lbs of mandarins, small bag of meyer lemons and a $4 dozen eggs at a local farm.
Don’t just sit there. Do something.
San Diego Republican assembly member Carl DeMaio came to Chico Women’s Club on October 21, two weeks ahead of the recent special election, to oppose Prop 50 and gather signatures for his Voter ID initiative. You can sign at the following link:
From Reform California https://www.reformcalifornia.org/cavoterid/home
The California Voter ID Initiative is a state constitutional amendment being proposed to impose a Voter ID requirement for all future elections in California. Because the proposal is a constitutional amendment, once approved by the voters, state politicians will be compelled to comply with it for all future elections – no exceptions. Here’s what it requires:
I think this is perfectly reasonable, so I signed the petition. In 2024, I wrote a post about a notice I got from the Butte County Clerk saying that I didn’t even need an address to register to vote, with no proof aside from my heartfelt assurance that it was true.
Read it yourself, you can click on that picture and see that it says “nearest cross street… ” It’s not just Butte County, it’s the entire state – you can register anywhere folks, maybe multiple times and more than one address, given the atmosphere in this state.
Here’s what worries me – Gavin Newsom has declared war on California voters, by telling us we are not allowed to put constitutional amendments on the ballot. In 2024 he and friends in the legislature removed the Taxpayer Protection Act from the ballot through a lawsuit, saying that the citizens of California are not allowed to make amendments to the constitution.
I think we need to call James Gallagher and Doug LaMalfa. You can call LaMalfa at his Chico office at (530) 343-1000. Gallagher – 530-895-4217. Ask the staffer who answers the phone what they are doing to support the California Voter ID Initiative.
And then come back here and let us know what you found out.
Chico Taxpayers Association 