Chico Taxpayers Association

I got a note from a friend of mine regarding a proposed federal mileage tax. I’d heard something about it, and yesterday I read that California is already working on it.

The hold-up is that they don’t know how to collect it. You know, our silly civil liberties. They aren’t allowed to track us, are they?

I hear you – silly Juanita! Just today I got an email from Google, a complete report as to where I had been on my vacation. Even a roadside produce shack. I suddenly realized – we’d used Google maps to get around to various destinations. That’s like putting a tracking device behind your tire!

So welcome to 1984, Big Brother is watching, and don’t trust Big Sis either. I’m going to assume new cars will have the same technology standard, if they don’t already.

State of California’s rationale for the mileage tax is pretty thin – proponents claim that as more people purchase electric cars, gas sales will go down and the Gas Tax will be moot. Then there won’t be any money for road maintenance. Again they throw that at us.

Here’s one problem with that line – gas and diesel are used well beyond cars. As for my family, all of our landscaping equipment, our tractor, our generator, and other items we need in our daily routine require gas. Big rigs that haul our goods, workers that haul their own tools and equipment all use gas. And how about those firefighters – I don’t see them driving electric vehicles in their daily migration between the Dixie fire front and their night quarters in Chico. Those giant bulldozers they tote back and forth all run on petroleum, as do the enormous rigs that haul them. And the planes that fly all the way to and from Sacramento and Chico all use gas.

Furthermore, instead of taxing people TWICE, why couldn’t electric car drivers make up the difference with higher registration fees? When I told a friend of mine that he reminded me that gas is over $4.50 a gallon right now, and over 50 cents of that is the gas tax. According to CBS News California has the highest gas tax in the country. And it goes up exponentially every January.

Powering California Network, “A Coalition of Californians Advocating for Economic Mobility for Working Families,” also points out that both the Gas Tax and this proposed mileage tax are both regressive, meaning, they hit working and poor people harder because they have to drive farther to work.

https://poweringcalifornia.com/powering-california-network/

https://poweringcalifornia.com/analysis-vehicle-miles-traveled-vmt-tax/

“California also has the highest housing costs in the country. California residents who cannot afford to live close to their work have to drive long distances to get to their place of employment, and as a result, they would have to pay more VMT taxes than those who can afford pricier homes near city centers. In many cases, these commuters driving longer distances are blue collar working families. And those working for minimum wage will be the most impacted. Many hardworking Californians living paycheck to paycheck cannot fill their tanks due to the high cost of fuel. The VMT would be an additional financial burden on them.“

Not all people work at the same location every day, some have to drive to various locations in one day. Public transportation is not an option. But, our gas taxes go to pay for trains, busses and bike trails that only serve a fraction of the population. Those people use the roads, but only those of us who buy gas pay for the maintenance? That’s whack.

Now Biden has a proposal for a national mileage tax. Both California proponents and national proponents are saying that a mileage tax could replace the gas taxes now in place, but there’s no guarantee.

It’s a good time to let your representatives know you’re paying attention.

Did PG&E start the Dixie Fire? Well, according to Cal Fire, the fire originated under the same, crumbling PG&E lines that started the Camp Fire.

If you drive into the foothills, it’s obvious that PG&E is not doing the clearance they were ordered to do, at least one federal judge has already called them on it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-judge-slams-pg-e-efforts-to-trim-trees-near-power-lines-to-prevent-wildfires-11582149085

A judge has actually called for more power shut-offs for safety, saying the trees have not been adequately cleared.

Judge might make PG&E shut off power more often

My family owns a piece of property in the foothills that was threatened by the Camp Fire. PG&E has sent three different contractors over the last three years, they’ve marked trees on our property that are near our neighbors’ power lines with three different colors of spray paint. They’ve noticed us each time of a specific date that they would be coming onto our property to cut those trees. We’ve driven up to our property and stayed for days with the gate open, but they’ve never shown up. We do our own clean-up, but are not able to cut trees towering over power lines.

So, if you have a good enough imagination, you should drive up Hwy 32 toward Chester, and just imagine every tree along the road fully engulfed. That’s what people experienced escaping Paradise three years ago. You saw the cars with plastic fixtures and paint melted off all over Chico for weeks.

Butte County should also be doing work, all along county roads, the brush is thick under the power lines. Garland Road was a major evacuation route during both the 2008 Paradise fire and the Camp Fire. The brush sticks out so far along the side of that road, right under power lines, trees towering above, it scrapes the side of our truck in many places. Folks we know who live along that road have also been contacted multiple times by various PG&E contractors who never showed up to do the work.

I sent this information, with pictures, to former Enterprise Reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Hanson but she never responded. Our local media is just crap. I saw this story, a three part series, on the Ch 10 news out of Sacramento – Fire, Power, Money.

Our governor is also to blame. Here we read that Newsome and other California politicians continued to take campaign contributions from PG&E even after the convictions for 84 deaths in Paradise and don’t forget those people incinerated in their homes in San Bruno. The Sonoma Fire. The Zogg Fire. I can’t remember all the fires PG&E has started or people they’ve killed.

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/california-politicians-campaigns-2-million-pge/103-4161feb9-1591-4ffc-9fda-d9c49d7173b8

I wonder, but don’t have time to look it up – how much money has PG&E given Newsome to fight the recall?

I got this video from a reader, and I got such a kick out of it, I had to post it.

Yes, there’s crude language, I’m sorry if you find that offensive. But I’ve had conversations like this with members of Chico Fire, including a guy who told me, “wait until your fat husband has a stroke… we won’t be there to carry his fat ass to the amubulance…”

As this video points out, firefighters don’t even make the Top Ten Most Dangerous Jobs list. You can google that yourself, I found several different lists that put even landscape maintenance workers ahead of fire department employees in terms of risk, injuries, and deaths on the job.

A firefighter hasn’t died in Chico since the 1970’s. The biggest issue we’ve had here was the mold at Station 5.

In fact, if you look at the report the city puts out every year, you find the average Chico Fire employee spends more time escorting ambulances – that don’t pay – than they do putting out fires.

Look, I know we need them, but do we need them to be working 48 hour shifts, getting paid to sleep, shower, eat, and do their grocery shopping in the ladder truck? We need to rethink our fire management, like Oroville is doing right now.

We have a super-aggressive hummingbird in our yard this year. I call him Mighty Max, because he’s about the same size as that classic toy, and feisty as heck. Whenever I water the plants that he feeds from, he buzzes my head, like a warning volley. I put up with him, because he eats at least his weight in mosquitoes. And I like his attitude – just because you’re small, doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be kicked around.

While it’s good to stand your own ground when you need to, its also good to have a big friend, like Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Yes, On Friday June 25, HJTA filed an Answer in response to city of Chico’s request for validation of their Pension Obligation Bond in the Butte Superior Court. An Answer is the threat to sue if the city were to go forward with the validation process. The city, according to a spokeswoman from HJTA, decided to dismiss their request for validation, but, they have not formally rescinded, as explained below.

“HJTA filed an Answer to the City’s validation action, but it is hopefully a mere cautionary exercise. The City indicated it will be dismissing the validation action, and rescinding its resolution to pass the pension obligation bond. Because the City could technically dismiss the action and then not rescind the resolution, we filed our Answer to be sure it happens as promised. Only in the unlikely event that the resolution is not rescinded would we need to continue the court case.“

So there’s another wait-and-see. While I can’t believe the city would take on a lawsuit at this point, they’ve shocked me before. I’d like to remind people, if you can make a $15 donation to HJTA, they make good use of the money.

Again I’ll say, I was sorry to see Kami Denlay go, because she was the only council member to vote No on the POB, reminding other council members that instituting a tax without voter approval is against the California Constitution. The rest of council went along with it, and I find that very disturbing.

I wasn’t sorry to see Scott Huber go – he has high expectations for the taxpayers, with low expectations for city services, and that’s just not logical. At one Finance Committee meeting he declared that “if Chico doesn’t want to pay more taxes then they won’t get services…” It seems obvious from a statement like that, Huber was out of touch with his constituents, very much at odds the general public. Instead of serving the taxpayers who pay for everything he seemed to want to punish us. That’s not the appropriate attitude for a public servant, we’re not here to pay for his fantasy land agenda.

I do find the circumstances of both their departures to be questionable, especially the ease with which they rolled over to the mobs, even after city clerk Debbie Presson cited the laws and said both were compliant. That’s what you get with a public position, it’s not a popularity contest like so many people think. This will just strengthen the bullies on both sides.

As for council appointments to fill their seats, well, that’s legal within the charter. Remember, council (majority in charge) writes and rewrites the charter with every change in the wind. This conversation has been had a few times since Colleen Jarvis abruptly died of cancer and the Esplanade League tried to shove her husband into her vacant seat. Council has gone over various options, including each council member naming their own replacement at the get-go. I lost track of what they finally decided to do.

But what I expect of the council sitting now is that it will be 4-1 on both appointments, as Coolidge and Morgan, with Reynold’s/Tandon’s blessing, fill both seats with their own friends. Meaning, people willing to go along with tax increases. I don’t think those four “conservatives” shed any tears over Denlay’s departure. While she was willing to go along with the exorbitant contracts, her conscience seemed to override taxation without voter approval.

So, I don’t know about you, but I will expect a shitstorm of tax measures coming around through the usual committee discussions. Or will they? Staff has learned that the less the public hears about tax measures, the easier it is to get council to put them on the ballot. I hope you’ll all join me in watching the committee agendas for these discussions. You might also want to contact your district representative, if you still have one, and just point blank ask them about the proposal for a sales tax measure and “road” bonds.

Ever vigilant folks, cause evil and greed never sleep.

I haven’t been blogging lately because, frankly, I can’t make heads or tails of what the hell is going on right now. Chico is a giant mess, people are just acting completely crazy. It’s a total breakdown of civilization, created by a government in mutiny.

If you think I’m over dramatizing, read a history book. Our elected officials and staff are not the first to turn on the public, abandon ship, and loot the treasury on their way out. That is what a Pension Obligation Bond does, it places the burden of the pensions on the taxpayers, forever.

Who you gonna call? Our elected officials are not interested in what we think, and when cornered, will say whatever they think we want to hear. Staff has holed behind Formal Requests For Information, transparency is over. I was just reading an article from Ted Siedle, in which he reports that California is among the worst states in financial transparency, especially of investments. And that’s exactly what I found when I asked city finance director Scott Dowell about the returns he’s been getting from the pension fund investments. He made me open an account and submit a formal request for the answer.

3Unfortunately, I haven’t had any news from Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association yet, but I sent another email today and frankly told them things are really bad in Chico right now and I would like to hear some good news! I’ll keep you posted!

In the meantime, I’m ignoring the Facebook sites, like I’d avoid public bathrooms these days.

Somebody asked me recently if I’m an “anti-vaxxer”. That’s a can of worms there.

Vaccination has always been a hot topic. Most people have accepted standard vaccines like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diptheria, and whooping cough, because they’ve been used for years and most of us have never heard of any bad reactions. Those diseases also caused a lot of misery in recent history, so people were eager to protect their children. My dad remembered a whole family that died of diptheria, my mother-in-law was hospitalized for two years with polio as a child, and an aunt was left completely deaf after a bout with whooping cough. So as a society we’ve become pretty comfortable with the notion of letting somebody inject us with a tiny bit of a disease in the hopes that our body would learn how to handle it.

I started questioning vaccines after a bad reaction from a vaccination I had as a college student. My mom’s house had flooded and our vaccine records were lost, so Chico State made me take an MMR shot again. I got a weird rash and felt very run down for a few days, and thought that was it. But, about 5 years later, I got the same rash and got so weak I was in bed for almost three weeks, had to hold onto furniture to make it to the bathroom.

I assumed it was because I’d already had the shot. I went ahead and had my kids vaccinated – my midwife made a good point. Those diseases have been essentially eliminated in the US, but, she pointed out correctly, this area sees a lot of immigration from countries that don’t vaccinate, so those diseases can still come back. I got my kids the vaccinations I’d had as a child.

When the chickenpox vaccine came out, I resisted. When I was a child, if somebody in the neighborhood had chickenpox, you took your kids to their house to play. When my sister and I had chickenpox, my grandmother took us to a woman who wanted her 8 children exposed. She let us watch tv all day and eat Otter Pops. Both my kids had chickenpox, and I think it was good for them. Only later did they tell us – if you haven’t had a good case of chickenpox as a child, you have to live in fear of it the rest of your life because it’s much more severe in adults. If you vaccinate, it’s recommended that you have regular boosters throughout your adult life. I feel good about that decision.

We’ve also all had good cases of the flu, one year it was so bad we called it The Asskicker Flu. I feel good about that too – I believe having an illness gives your body the strength to resist. But I also saw a lot of things wrong with the flu vaccine. For one thing, the CDC admitted, there are so many different strains of the flu, they just plain GUESS which vaccine they should be doling out. According to their website, “The seasonal flu vaccine protects against the influenza viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season.” And they also admitted, they haven’t always been right, and we’ve had bad flu seasons even when people have lined up out the door at Raleys to get the shots.

Then there was the case in 2019 of flu shots that turned out to be insulin.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/11/08/flu-shots-insulin-oklahoma-10-hospitalized/2529395001/

Insulin will kill you if you are not a diabetic. How are we supposed to trust the medical community when they make mistakes like this? We’ve also heard a lot of contradictions during this pandemic, too many to list here.

I don’t think it’s stupid or foolish to ask questions. It’s supposed to be our duty to stand up when we hear or see something that is completely out of line with logic and reason. I’m very uncomfortable with how eagerly some people have given up their civil rights over this COVID panic, and even more uncomfortable with how they’ve tried to bully others into compliance.

We’ve come a long way since 1776, but we may have been moving in a circle.