Tag Archives: Alcohol Compliance and Education Initiative Chico Ca

April is Taxpayer Appreciation Month – thank you Sue Hubbard and Harold Ey!

3 Apr

As I sit down today to make out the last of my property tax payments, I want to thank Sue Hubbard for writing and submitting the following:

Proclamation

 

WHEREAS, The approximate 47% of Americans who pay no income tax are supported by the 53% of those who do

WHEREAS, Five percent of Americans are paying 60% of all income tax

WHEREAS, America’s top tax rate is the second highest in the world

WHEREAS, Taxpayer’s money is used to fund government services

WHEREAS, Taxpayer’s money is used to pay salary and benefits to government workers

WHEREAS, Taxpayers are the ones who are paying for all the entitlements so generously given out in this country

WHEREAS, Taxpayers pay America’s bills

NOW THEREFORE BE IT PROCLAIMED, that the Chico Taxpayer’s Association hereby recognizes April as Taxpayer Appreciation Month.

This was supposed to be an official proclamation, Sue had asked the city clerk for the proper format etc, and sent it off for approval from a proclamation happy council – Mary Goloff turned it down. Oh well, one woman’s trash is the entire town’s treasure.  We don’t need those dummies to run our town – so be it, April is Taxpayer Appreciation Month. It’s just too good an idea to pass up.

Our first activity will be the usual First Sunday meeting at the library, or as I prefer to call it, The First Church of Democracy.

Harold Ey is not one of our standing members, but he’s our kinda guy. Harold has always lit up the letters page with his pokey wit, he tells it like it is. Here’s a letter of his I found in the ER this morning:

Letter: Taxes won’t solve homeless problem

Chico Enterprise-Record
Posted:   04/03/2013 12:05:04 AM PDT

 

One of the more off-the-wall suggestions we heard at last week’s 90-minute gabfest between Mary Goloff and Ann Schwab was the idea of taxing liquor sales. Schwab thought this could be a solution that might possibly reduce the number of down-and-out downtown drunks. Leave it to a liberal to attack private business with more taxation because; isn’t greedy capitalism the root cause of the homeless problem? However, as Schwab was rambling on, she brought up another point about how to deal with the perplexing problem of bicyclists riding on the sidewalks (there’s a cause of homelessness).However, you know her tax idea might actually work here. First, City Council puts a hefty tax on bicycle shops in the downtown area. After all, the sale started the problem to begin with, right? Then we require the shop owner to register each bicycle sold (another government fee) and keep a database for an undetermined number of years.

Then when a police officer stops someone riding on the sidewalk and runs the registration number, the shop selling the bicycle gets fined as well as the operator of the bike, and we double up the fine when a plastic bag is involved also. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The bicycle shop contributed to the scofflaw’s actions by selling the bicycle to begin with. Makes about as much sense as the first 90 minutes of last week’s “study session.” Yes, Mayor Goloff, the public is very upset.

— Harold Ey, Chico

I have to add here, this liquor tax is not Mary Goloff or Ann Schwab’s idea. It came to us from Chico PD, when Mike Maloney was chief, and now Kirk Trostle has picked it up. It’s called the ACE initiative, “Alcohol Compliance and Education,” and it’s to be administered, and I believe collected, by Chico PD. They tried to get us interested in it before the 2012 election, but they saw all those other tax increase proposals on the ballot, and they backed off, planning to bring it back around in 2014.

This is a fee collected from “alcohol related” businesses. It is at the discretion of Chico PD WHO pays,  and HOW MUCH they pay.  Here’s the slick pamphlet they’ve been handing out:

http://www.butteyouthnow.org/public/uploads/City%20of%20Chico%20ACE%20Issue%20Brief%20%232(1).pdf

Now take a look at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control website:

http://www.abc.ca.gov/programs/grant.html

As you can see, the ABC is fully funded from fees collected from alcohol related businesses. Chico PD seeks to place additional fees on the industry in order to duplicate the actions of the ABC. I don’t see the sense in this. The police are supposed to be out there enforcing the laws, preventing and solving actual crimes – providing special consulting services to one industry in town does not seem appropriate to me.

Chief Trostle and his management staff spend a lot of their high dollar time yakking, I’ll say that. I just attended the Police Advisory Board meeting last week and tomorrow I’m headed to a Chamber of Commerce “luncheon with the Chief.” This guy is paid over $160,000 a year to run the cop shop, but he seems to be some sort of Public Relations expert. Same for Linda Dye and  Jennifer Gonzales – both paid around $100,000 a year to give reports at meetings. I know, they put on their vest and gun and go out for the photo ops – in fact, Dye was carrying her riot stick, which she handled absentmindedly, while she spoke at  the Police Advisory Board meeting. 

The cops are management heavy. They also DON’T PAY ANY OF THEIR OWN BENEFITS OR PENSION PREMIUMS. This is why I have said we need to reorganize the cop shop, but yeah, last night, Mark Sorensen and Sean Morgan voted along with the rest of the fist puppets to renew the cop contract as is, with all the perks and benies. Sorry Harold, I think that booze tax is a done deal too.

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