Posted on 12/17/2001 4:52:44 AM PST by sasquatch
CRESCENT CITY -- By now, Del Norte County knows the language of layoffs. Timber
mills in the far northwest corner of California have closed, going from 50 to just a handful.
Commercial fishing in this coastal community has dried up. Today, even government employees
are threatened with layoffs, because Del Norte County is going broke.
County officials say they've cut as much as they can in their $34 million budget and now
need $1.7 million from the state to pay for increases in state-mandated programs,
such as foster care, to balance their books. California, with its own budget problems, won't help.
``We're in a bare-bones situation and they want us to go into the marrow,'' said Martha McClure,
a Del Norte County supervisor. Most of the county's budget pays for state-mandated programs.
The county's public safety, health and local government programs split the remaining $9 million.
Counties raise money through sales and property taxes and vehicle license fees, much of which goes to the state.
Del Norte, population 28,000, once supplemented its income with timber yield taxes,
which in the late 1970s brought in more than $1 million annually. But this year, those fees will bring in only $80,000.
Three-quarters of the rural county on the Oregon border is owned by the government, which doesn't pay property tax. A proposed sale of 26,000 acres of timber land to the state will further dent an already tight budget.
The Save the Redwoods League plans to buy the property, owned by Stimson Lumber, then transfer it to the state park system. Stimson stopped logging in November 2000, but paid about $55,000 a year in property taxes. Del Norte will miss the money, and county officials are scrambling to find money in its budget to cover county workers' salaries, including sheriff's deputies. Many California counties face similar problems, said Pat Leary, legislative representative for the California State Association of Counties.
``In a lot of ways,'' Leary said, Del Norte ``may be a harbinger of things to come.''
Stop paying for state-mandated programs. If the state gets angry, tell them to fund them. Use local taxes on local projects deemed important by the locals (note: this may require a backbone)
What the heck are you talking about? Their problem ISN'T that they have plenty of fish around and people aren't buying American fish, it's that the California commercial fishermen wiped out their own fishery and they can look in the mirror if they want to see the cause of their problems.
It's the Japanese buying fish from us,btw, not the other way around...the Japanese wiped out their own fishery before we destroyed ours, and their big money purchases are now helping us wipe out the last of our fish.
If George w bush wants to un-do the harm done by george hw bush, then he can do so, but it seems that he's committed to a certain amount of rural cleansing to me as a part of the new world order efforts.
Do you know that for a fact or are you just shoolting off your mouth? I've got data that says it's the latter. Aquaculture killed the salmon fishing industry. You can't buy diesel for the boat and compete with farmed salmon sold at $1.25 per pound. There was a record salmon run this year. After the Peacific Decadal Oscillation completed its cycle the numbers came back up. Now if we could just get NMFS to do something about overpopulated pinnipeds, mismanaging the hatcheries, and stop messing with the smolt run trying to make Gray Davis look good, the salmon would be doing great.
This activist alert was to announce that the funds from the CPB were about to be released and instructed enviro activists on how to become members of the RAC. The point was that with enough effort the enviros could stack these committees and influence how this money would be spent. Possibly to the detriment of the County.
I realize this isn't politically correct on FR, where business is always right and enviros ALWAYS wrong, but commercial fishermen wipe out fisheries, unless the government can close it before they can. It's happened, is happening, and will happen, because of the nature of the industry (people don't own plots of ocean, and as a population declines the price for the fish goes up.)
You're right, and the cutting off of irrigation water to patriotic American farmers VS bottom feeding sucker fish is a good example of it.
And, while we're on the subject of saintly Republicans. It was REPUBLICANS that pushed for, then passed a grossly flawed energy "deregulation" bill in California causing the energy mess we're in...AND, it was "read my lips", "new world order" GHW Bush that gave us the ADA...AND, it was Republican president Nixon that gave us the EPA and other alphabet soup bureaucracies, not to mention wage and price controls, mandatory 55 MPH speed limits etc....
When voting Democrat or Republican, be careful what you wish for......
We tried doing what YOU think is right. We elected Republican Governors for 16 consecutive years before Gray Davis... this sh!t didn't just happen over night.
Both parties are infested with "Liberal politicians".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.