Chico Taxpayers Association

Enjoying the air quality? Smells like CANCER! Well, when you get your terminal lung cancer diagnosis, you can thank the US Forest Service and Cal Fire. It’s official – USFS policy is LET IT BURN. They call it “management”, which sounds appropriate, when you consider, they just MANAGED to burn down another town.

Greenville was a damned nice town. Not only did my husband lay a lot of flooring in that area, but I have relatives scattered all over the little towns between Chester and Quincy. What Cal Fire has done is criminal.

I’ve asked this question on various social media sites, but nobody ever comes back with an answer. If the Dixie Fire is growing by thousands of acres per day, how the hell can they say it’s “contained”? Well, my neighbor, who is retired law enforcement, told me, “that means, ‘burned’, it won’t burn again… not right away anyway…”

According to this article from Wildfire Today,

Forest Service Chief says wildfires will be suppressed, rather than “managed”, for now

our new USFS chief, Randy Moore, is going to change this policy.

“In an August 2 letter to the field, new US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said that because there is in a “national crisis”, they will not “manage fires for resource benefit”. In other words, instead of allowing fires to burn in order to replicate natural conditions and improve the ecosystem, they will put them out — at least to the best of their ability. “

Given the resources, money, and manpower – including inmates from prisons – this fire should have been out already. They’ve admitted they are allowing it to burn, even increasing the burn area (and the toxic smoke) by setting “back fires”.

Another article on the same page says the vegetation in the Dixie Fire has not burned for over 40 years. I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but I know, when I was a kid, which was over 40 years ago, they did “controlled” burns in the winter, having cleared and stacked dead and diseased vegetation over the spring and summer. Who in their right mind would try to “control” or “manage” a fire in the conditions we’re facing right now, instead of during winter rains?

Apparently, USFS had a historic policy called the “10 am Rule” – meaning, put the fire out by 10 am on the second day. But every time there’s a new chief for USFS or Cal Fire, policy changes. In 2008, Cal Fire officially stopped doing fire prevention, saying this was up to the various counties and other local agencies. That was it, and now here we are.

I know, I’ll get some nasty comments on this one – go for it idiots. What the problem is right now, is all these cowboys are on overtime. They work 48 hour shifts, do the math. We’ve watched them pour in from departments all over the state, from as far away as Hawaii! It’s an overtime party, is all it is, and we’re paying for it in more ways than one.

RECALL NEWSOM!

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.