CA: Governor to declare emergency, bypass Legislature to help cities

Sac Bee ^ | 12/17/03 | Tom Chorneau - AP

[ridesthemiles]

If burned over private lands are salvage logged, CDF inspectors will be needed to oversee the logging operations. I wish I had contacts down there, there is virtually no work on private land up here.

Since the CDF has fought off the logginf of even small private land holdings, I don't know how they could know how to oversee any logging. They have fought cleaning up the slach and trash on the forest floor for years. I think it was always an ace in the hole for their jobs. If the fires come- which they did- it makes them LOOK indispensable. Maybe I have it tangled up?

[forester]

Looks like Burton is grumbling about not getting paid enough for the job. This will probably be the last time he gets drunk before cutting a deal with Arnold.

[dalereed]

"I will vote NO on Arnold's $15,000,000,000.00 bond measure"

So will I and will also vote no on the sham of a Constitutional ammendment.

Another thing that needs to happen is for the schools to eliminate about 80+% of administration and go back to the way they ran schools 60 years ago when I went to public school.

They should also take every administrator with a teaching credential that they list as a teacher in their budgets and either fire them or make them teach.

The schools don't need more money, they need less!

[tubebender]

Sierra Pacific bought a timber firm, saw mill and log deck near San Diego and trucked the logs to Redding, Weaverville and Eureka. I think they even trucked logs from AZ. Schmidbauer Lumber and Sierra Pac import logs from Wash, British Columbia and New Zealand to keep their mills going because of over regulation of timber practices...

[tubebender]

With the exception of San Francisco cities have very little to do with welfare. That is a county thing and it is mandated and funded by the state and feds and is not connected to their general funds...

[ArmstedFragg]

So how did these cities manage to survive just several months ago - before Grayout tripled the car tax? No one ever seems to ask this question.

The answer's a little involved, but here goes:

Several years ago, the car tax was at a high rate. The lion's share of that car tax goes to fund local government. When times were good, Gray and pals decided they'd become heros by cutting the car tax. In order to avoid impacting local government, they began a process called "back-fill" in which the state made up for the revenue local government was losing as a result of the car tax being lowered.

When the car tax was raised again a few months ago, those back-fill moneys stopped, but local governements were still okay because they were getting the revenue from the higher tax. By lowering the tax again, the new Governor has created a situation where they have no revenue from the car tax and no back-fill. Thus, the emergency for local governments.

So, I guess the short version of the answer is that although the car tax has gone down, up, then down again, the amount local government got from the state remained unchanged until a couple of weeks ago.

[forester]

I don't know how they could know how to oversee any logging. .....Maybe I have it tangled up?

Given the recent recruits (enviro zealots) that Davis hired over the last five years, I agree with you: they do not have enough experience to oversee anything. As for the State preventing logging, it didn't get bad up here untill the salmon rules passed in 2000. Now getting a permit to log ones own land has become a nightmare for small landowners. Maybe you have the feds and the State switched?

The one exception is logging dead and dying trees. These are still notices (not permits). They are one page forms with a map on which you tell the State who you are, where you live, and what the name of the logger is. You mail it in and start logging five days later. The loggers still have to follow all of the rules in the woods, it's only the environmental paperwork that is eliminated. A superior permit system IMHO.

[ambrose]

Thanks.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

You know the     drill    , the cities are cutting the vital services first, and the welfare second, and blaming it all on Arnold.

[Constantine XIII]

You've got to remember, though, that he's dealing with a legislature that's 2/3 dim. It's like prying steaks from a hungry grizzly bear!

[ArmstedFragg]

You know the, the cities are cutting the vital services first, and the welfare second, and blaming it all on Arnold.

Well, it's certainly not unheard of for politicians to pick the most alarming possible cut to hold up anytime someone threatens their budget, but not withstanding that:

The cities don't do much welfare, it's mostly county.

The cuts in services are a direct result of Arnold's action.

It could also be argued that they're a direct result of the legislature's failure to act to make up the lost revenues created by Arnold's action.

California has had a fifteen history of the state grabbing more and more of what had, previously, been local funding, then either keeping it or returning it minus a "handling charge". We used to do a pretty damn good job of deciding what to spend our own money on, but that didn't slow them down any... matter of fact, maybe it motivated them since they hated people making the comparison.

[ArmstedFragg]

import logs from Wash

Mexico too, I think. And wasn't most of the pulp going to Japan?

[Carry_Okie]

Excuse me, but I grew up in San Francisco, lived in Oakland, and now in occupied Santa Cruz. I know about Slave Party majorities.

I also know about the Constitution. Give 'em an honest budget and learn how to defend it in the public domain. Let 'em pass anything they want. Veto it until they pass a legal budget. That's the system.

[forester]

because of over regulation of timber practices...

At this point it has become regulatory gridlock. When I ask CDF people when my permit will be approved, I get a deer in the headlights look. Meanwhile, rural un-employment keeps going up and up.

[ArmstedFragg]

regulatory gridlock.

If it's any consolation... and I know it's not... developers all over the state are having similar experiences. I sat through a hearing tonight in which a developer was begging a city council to complete one document so that he could begin moving it through ten different regulatory agencies on the way to final approval. Each of those agencies has a right to change the document, and the city was a little leary about signing it when they didn't know what was going to be in it once all the changes had been made.

Instant gridlock.

And.. mind you.. this entire issue involved the part of the land the guy WASN'T building on.

[William Tell]

ArmstedFragg said: California has had a fifteen history of the state grabbing more and more of what had, previously, been local funding, then either keeping it or returning it minus a "handling charge".

Sounds just like the federal government. Overtax and use the excess money to bribe states into doing things in ways that they would not otherwise agree to. These transfer payments should have been struck down by the courts. Instead, this system has allowed an explosion in federal control of state matters.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!!

[tubebender]

And wasn't most of the pulp going to Japan?

Yes, and many other countries.The is only one pulp mill left here and it only has a week to week supply of wood chips to run on. There are some chips exported to Ore and Wash from here.There was a power plant in Blue Lake that burned wood waste for steam and it shut down 2 years ago...

[ArmstedFragg]

Instead, this system has allowed an explosion in federal control of state matters.

Yep. And that same sort of "government by blackmail" has trickled right down through all the levels.

[ArmstedFragg]

The is only one pulp mill left here

The one near Samoa, or out at beautiful downtown Fairhaven?